


Bloom & the Wolf

by ME_V_S



Category: Winx Club
Genre: Adult Content, Alternate Universe, F/M, Self-Insert
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-05
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-18 20:43:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 22,925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29863809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ME_V_S/pseuds/ME_V_S
Summary: You know that saying "careful what you wish for"? Well, be careful what you wish for! I wished my whole life for better parents, and then ended up waking up in someone else's body. As if that wasn't bad enough, just when I started to get used to my new life, I discovered I had hijacked the body of one of my favorite fictional characters. But nothing is like the Winx Club I watched as a kid. Everything is more grown-up, the creatures absolutely terrifying, and despite hoping all of this is a bad dream, I'm not waking up. And why oh why do I constantly find myself in the Omega Dimension where a jerk of a higher being keeps saying "interesting" and invading my personal space?Ugh, it's like I'm stuck in some bad fanfiction.
Relationships: Bloom/Valtor | Baltor (Winx Club)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 30





	1. Prologue

The day my life changed forever started… Well, oddly enough it started the day before. Hmm, how to explain this without overcomplicating things? Let’s call it day zero, and the day my life changed day one.

Day zero started like any other. My alarm woke me from a pleasant slumber, I got dressed and tackled my hair, then went downstairs and ate breakfast in a giant but empty dining room. Carson – my family’s butler – notified me that the driver was ready while I was finishing up and I went to school.

School was boring as usual. One of my fake friends – seriously, why do people think that befriending the rich while hating them is a smart thing? – had dumped her latest fling and while pretending to be heartbroken around us, she was shamelessly flirting with our new history teacher. I sang “Don’t stand so close to me” from The Police whenever she did. For some _weird_ reason she did not appreciate that.

I thought it was pretty funny.

Everything went to hell around third period. I had physics and we were discussing vectors.

You know that feeling a rubber band gives you when you have it wrapped around your fingers, and pull it further and further apart until it snaps?

Well, I had that exact feeling during my third period. As if something inside me had been pulled apart until finally it couldn’t take it anymore and just snapped. It was the oddest thing.

The feeling passed quickly. The nausea and fatigue which followed did not.

I could barely keep my eyes open the rest of the day, no matter how hard I tried and how much caffeine I drank.

The migraine started not even an hour later. I am prone to them, you see. I even have prescribed medication. Triptans. They are disgusting and while they are in my system my anxiety goes through the roof. I even called an ambulance once because I was sure I was having a heart-attack. Not one of my finest moments I will admit, but it gives you an idea on what they do. Still if I had to choose between that and a migraine, I would choose the lesser of two evils and pick the triptans. Anxiety attack be damned.

Usually, I see auras beforehand. They are somewhat of a warning that an attack is coming. This time the auras and migraine hit me at the same time.

My auras were weird, even weirder than usual. Normally, I see colours dancing through the air like waves, a little like the aurora borealis. This time I saw them as well, but also people with wings. They were flying through caves with the astonishing crystals, and through a dark forest that was somehow appealing and welcoming. Even weirder was the fact that they seemed to notice me. They stared straight back, even pointed at me. I swear I saw one motion to me, as if inviting me to come and join them.

Like I said, they were weird.

I did the only thing I could do: I called Carson and let the school nurse know I was heading home with a migraine. She gave me a sympathetic smile. Everyone at school knew I was prone to migraines, and this wasn’t the first time I went home with one.

Carson picked me up. He had chosen one of the cars with tainted windows. Being the considerate person he was, he also brought a bucket and my medication. That man was an utter hero and I told him this whenever I could.

He helped me into the back and then drove home as slowly and carefully as possible. Not that that did any good. I still ended up puking my guts out. But it was nice of him to try.

I was trembling and shivering by the time we made it home, the auras so overwhelming that I could barely see anything but them. The rest of the world was hidden away behind them. I didn’t have the strength to go to my room. I could barely even feel my legs. Carson had to carry me upstairs, the poor man.

The last thing I remember was Carson tugging me in and telling me to sleep it off, that he was one call away if I needed anything.

Afterwards nothing. Nada. Zip.

Next time I joined the land of the living, it was day one.

I woke to the thought: “ _that was one crazy-ass dream_ ”. Whenever I have a migraine, my dreams are weirder than usual. The big difference is that I can never remember what they were about, just that they were really weird. This was one of those times.

Much to my delight the migraine was gone. I had no idea how much time had passed between falling asleep and waking up. Time seized to exist when I had a migraine. Occasionally I fell asleep and woke to find three entire days had passed. Other times the pain had me pacing the room and a single hour felt like a week. Luckily Carson kept a close eye on me, keeping me fed and hydrated, and also updating the school on my condition.

Have I mentioned the man was a real hero? I have? Well, he really was.

I awoke to a dark room, which wasn’t unusual. Anyone with migraines will tell you that during an attack, light and sound are your greatest enemies.

My bed was familiar and soft, just the right combination of sinking and floating. My head was supported by a soft down pillow, which I only used when I had a migraine. I had two down pillows: one a bit sturdier and one that basically swallowed my head whole.

All was as I expected. The hungover always following a migraine was present. I was shivering all over and my fingers and toes were popsicles, another regular thing. My head was stuffed with cotton and when I moved a little too fast, or bent forward, pain and dizziness assaulted me.

Nothing out of the usual.

.

.

.

Except I could hear cars.

I lived in a mansion just outside London. The nearest road that was actively used by other cars was quite some distance away. I shouldn’t be able to hear cars, yet I did, and it was like dozens of them raced past the house. Another thing that should be impossible since the house had acres of land and a thick fence surrounding it. There was one way to and from the house and it was over the long driveway and through the gates.

I shouldn’t be hearing that many cars, least of all them traveling as quickly as I guessed they were going.

“ _Something isn’t right._ ”

I carefully opened my eyes and saw “ _A solid wall?_ ” My hand automatically reached forward to check. “ _Yes, my bed is standing against a wall. My bed isn’t supposed to be standing against a solid wall._ ”

My bed was perched in the middle of the room with no walls near it. The headboard was pushed against a glass wall that separated my room from my wardrobe and bathroom. Both the right and left side of the bed were free to be used.

Yet I was currently curled up against a wall, facing and touching it.

“ _What the hell?_ ”

This did not add up. Even if my bed had been pushed against a wall, I shouldn’t be seeing it. I needed solid darkness to sleep, especially when I had a migraine. The windows had outer shutters that could be manually rolled down from the inside, and in front of them hung thick curtains to deny any light entrance. I didn’t even have a radio alarm with those annoying red numbers that pierced through the darkness. And there was no way Carson would have forgotten to close the shutters and curtains before leaving me to recover.

But the wall wasn’t cloaked in darkness. Quite the opposite: while there wasn’t much light, it was definitly there. Enough that I could make out my favourite blue colour on said wall. My eyes trailed over the smooth surface, finding several drawings plastered on it. Drawings that could have been created by my own hands. They were framed by a canopy, which fell elegantly down and was tied to the posts of the bed I was lying in.

“ _I don’t have a four-poster bed. Mother loathes them. She says there are childish and old-fashioned._ ”

My eyes followed the thin white canopy, finding it above my head as well. The light came from there, from the fairy lights that were attached to the ceiling. They gave off a soft yet warm light that brought a smile to my face. I rather liked them. With them and the canopy I could almost pretend I was hidden away in some magical corner of the world.

I frowned. “ _That doesn’t change the fact that I don’t have a four-poster bed, fairy lights and a canopy. Where the hell am I?_ ”

I turned my back against the wall. An entirely unfamiliar room greeted me.

The bed I was occupying was queen-sized rather than my California king, and was nestled in a corner, almost like one of those old box beds. There wasn’t a nightstand in sight. Instead, a windowsill began just beside the bed. It slipped past the corner and then followed the walls before ending on the wall opposite of the bed. I guessed in the middle had to be a window, as there were curtains there. A cosy little sitting area was created in front of it, perched on the windowsill complete with pillows and quilts. Surrounding that little spot were plants in cheerful pots, a stuffed animal here and there, and some frames holding more drawings as well as family photos.

I groaned as I observed the nearest photo. Three people were in it: a man, a woman, and a teenager. And they were as familiar to me as this room.

“ _Oh, this is just fantastic. Absolutely fantastic._ ” I fell back in the pillows, slapping a hand to my forehead. “ _Waking up in a stranger’s house – haven’t done that in quite some time. Just wait until mother catches wind of this._ ”

And my mother always caught wind of my scandals, as she liked to call them, even with the servants covering for me. And when she did, I had to sit through one of her horrendous lectures on teenage pregnancies and me staining her perfect reputation, before ending it with the usual threat of disowning me. Pleasant things like that. Usually when I was still hungover. No, that was her _preference_.

“ _Stupid, stupid, stupid…_ ” I repeatedly slapped my forehead, gritting my teeth. “ _Wait._ ” My hand paused mid-air as the word shot through me. “ _How did I even end up here?_ ”

When I had fallen asleep, I had been in my own room. Carson had picked me up from school and taken me home. He had carried me to my own bedroom. Right?

“ _Then why do I only remember my weird auras?_ ” My stomach twisted in unease. “ _I didn’t get into a stranger’s car, right? It was Carson who picked me up, **right**?_” I suddenly wasn’t so sure anymore. After all, if it had been Carson, I should have been home and I wasn’t.

I mentally kicked myself. “ _Stop freaking out, Sybil. Of course, it was Carson. He brought a bucket and your medication, remember? A stranger wouldn’t have done that._ ” I glanced hesitantly through the room, my stomach twisting uncomfortably. “ _But then how did I end up here?_ ”

I carefully sat up against the pillows, my throat tightening as I observed the room.

The opposite wall wasn’t painted blue. Instead a familiar Pip wallpaper – the cute white one with all those golden ladybugs – was plastered on it. Against it stood a desk with a beautiful iMac. The sight instantly made my fingers itch. I even drooled a little. I always wanted to have an iMac. They were perfect for editing photos and digital painting, which together with drawing was my passion. But my father had shares in Windows and was buddy-buddy with Bill Gates. Anything that wasn’t Windows was forbidden in the house. The servants weren’t even allowed to have iPhones.

An uncomfortable heaviness settled over me, my throat tightening, as the wallpaper and computer sank in. The computer I wanted but wasn’t allowed to have because of my father. The wallpaper I loved but that my mother found too childish.

“ _Coincide. It is all just a coincide._ ” The lump in my throat and the acid taste in my mouth disagreed. “ _Calm down, Sybil. You are freaking out over nothing. Apple is currently **THE** brand to have. A lot of people have iMac’s nowadays and that wallpaper isn’t all that rare either._”

I searched for something that would illuminate the room a little more. That way I could show myself that the similarities ended with the iMac and wallpaper. That there was nothing weird going on.

“ _Then how do you explain where you are?_ ” whispered a traitorous little voice in the back of my mind. It sounded an awful lot like my mother. I tuned her out. I tended to do that whenever my mother was speaking. I was rarely in the mood to listen to her. She would just give me another panic attack or kick my self-esteem further into the ground.

Beside the bed, half hidden behind one of the posts and the canopy, stood a tall lamp. It had both a lamp that illuminated the ceiling and a reading light. I could even switch them on separately and control how much light the lamps were given.

“ _Fancy… I have to get myself one of these._ ”

I twisted one of the knobs and the ceiling light instantly jumped on, casting more light into the room. My eyes eagerly took everything in. And with every detail I grew sicker.

On the floor was the light carpet I had begged for when my mother was redecorating some rooms, including my bedroom, but carpet – and a light one at that – would show every stain and spot, and therefore it was out of the question. Her words, not mine.

My favourite houseplants – African violets, orchids and coleuses – were littered through the room in pots I would have picked out myself. Behind the bed was a wardrobe that stood half open, giving me a clear view on clothes – mostly blue and white – I would definitly wear. On the far side of the room was a white bookcase – that contrasted perfectly against the blue wall – filled to the brink with fantasy books, the genre I loved to read. Beside it was a sketching desk covered in drawings and sketches that once again looked as if I had made them myself.

My eyes darted into every direction, taking one detail in right after the other. Horror clawed inside me and threatened to gnaw its way out of me like that terrifying thing from Alien.

“ _This is my room._ ” I swallowed as the lump in my throat grew. “ _This is exactly what I dreamed of having, of what mother would never allow me to have because she considered it childish and unsuitable. This is everything I dreamed of having, but…_ ”

I gasped. It was everything I had dreamed about, but I rarely spoke about. No one knew I simply adored coleuses and would have several of them in my room if my mother would allow me to have plants.

“ _No, dear. Plants just die and we can’t have that. Can you imagine what people would say if they saw a dead plant in our house? The idea alone!_ ”

I shuddered at the memory, my eyes zeroing in on the closest coleus. “ _How is this possible?_ ” I swallowed again. The real question wasn’t how it was possible. Anyone reading my diary would probably know what I liked and disliked. A better question was why. Why was I in a room that seemed to be designed specifically for me, and more importantly, how had I gotten here?

“ _No!_ ” I scowled as the first theory popped into my head. “ _Don’t be ridiculous! Carson has worked for my family longer than I have been alive. He wouldn’t kidnap me! Or do something so- so- **creepy** …_”

“ _Well, it does explain everything._ ” I grimaced at the nasty voice. “ _I mean, all he had to do was read your diary. And everyone knows you hide it with your knickers. Not to mention he had the opportunity. In your state he could have easily dropped you off here rather than at the house. It all adds up._ ” I could practically hear my mother light a cigarette and puffing out the smoke in that annoying satisfied way of hers. “ _I never did like him._ ”

I scowled angrily. “ _Shut up, mother! You know nothing!_ ”

While Carson did have the opportunity and the means, I refused to believe he would violate my privacy, let alone take advantage of me in the state I had been in to do something as horrendous as kidnapping me. He was like a grandf– no, not a grandfather, he was too young for that. More like an uncle. The one who sneaked you sweets while your parents weren’t watching and gave you awesome presents that you didn’t even know you wanted. The one…

“ _… I admitted to on multiple occasion that I wished he was my father rather than my own._ ” My chin fell to my chest, tears welling up in my eyes. “ _Is that why…?_ ” I instantly shook my head, dismissing those thoughts. “ _No, Carson would never do that. And there is only one thing I can do to prove it: call him and ask him to pick me up._ ”

I nodded to myself, satisfied with my plan and determined to get it done. It lasted for thirty whole seconds. Thirty seconds, before it disappeared into thin air when I pushed the sheets off and caught sight of myself for the first time.

“ _These are not my pyjamas._ ” I frowned at the dark blue shirt and trousers I was wearing. They were littered in little white stars. “ _Cute… Not something I would pick out myself, but cut… Wait a minute!_ ” I choked. “ _I was wearing my clothes when I fell asleep! Someone CHANGED ME!!_ ”

This was getting weird, way too weird. And why was there an elephant sitting on my chest? I didn’t like elephants sitting on my chest.

Bedroom designed for me? Check. Being changed in different clothes while out cold? Check. All that missed was a creepy stalker and me tied to a chair, gagged, and this would be an episode of Criminal Minds.

“ _Okay, calm down. Calm down, calm down, calm down, calm down. Calm the fuck DOWN, Sybil!_ ” The world was spinning, as I gasped for air that refused to come, like a fish out of water. The small part of my rationality still functioning was kind enough to warn me I was hyperventilating.

“ _You are fine. Perfectly fine. Just breathe._ ” I breathed out through my mouth, prolonging it as long as possible and then carefully breathed back in. My heart stammered painfully against my ribs. “ _That’s it. Just breathe. There is no point in freaking out. It doesn’t solve anything and will definitely get you killed._ ”

My heart launched itself up my airway and out my mouth. “ _Killed?!_ ”

I pinched my eyes close, shaking violently. “ _No, you idiot. No one is being killed. You are overreacting!_ ” But the panic was slowly winning and staring at the room only worsened it. “ _Think, Sybil. There has to be a perfectly logical explaining for all this. Like- like…_ ” I snapped my fingers triumphantly, ignoring how my mother’s voice huffed in the back of my mind. “ _Sleepwalking! I must have sleepwalked out of the house again. Some nice family must have found me and taken me home with them._ ”

“ _And changed you into ugly pyjamas?_ ” I cringed at the sharp question. “ _And put you where? In a spare bedroom that resembles the dream bedroom from when you were a toddler? **Right**! My money is still on the butler._”

No matter how much I hated that voice, it had a point.

I shoved it all away, shaking my head again. “ _No, I won’t think like that. There is nothing strange about any of this. Just you wait and see, there is a perfectly logical explanation for this mess that has nothing to do with kidnapping and someone having an obsession with me._ ” I repeated it a few times, in the hopes I would start to believe it more. What was that saying the Dutch had, the one my father liked to quote? “ _The power of advertisement is repetition_ ”? Yeah, it was definitely something like that.

“ _The Dutch are weird…_ ”

It didn’t work either. The nagging feeling that something was wrong – really wrong – never wavered or went away.

I tried to ignore it as best I could. Instead, I got out of bed and took a closer look around.

Behind the curtains was indeed a window, a big window overlooking a busy street. On both sides of the street were townhouses. They were – I frowned – _odd_. The outside surface was smooth and had a sandy colour. Above the doors were balconies, and all the windows and doors were hidden away under little roofs. And there were palm trees and exotic looking shrubs in front of them.

“ _Toto, we are not in Kansas anymore._ ” I shook my head dismissively and closed the curtains again. I was probably in a part of London I hadn’t been to before and a lot of people preferred exotic plants nowadays. “ _Stay calm and think logical. Nothing weird is going on._ ”

“ _Methinks the lady protests too much._ ”

I scowled at my mother’s voice, turning my back rather defensively to the curtains. “ _Shut up._ ” My heart leaped and joy overwhelmed me as I spotted a mobile phone beside the iMac. “ _See! Not kidnapped! What kidnapper would leave a phone behind? Maybe those idiots from the first two Home Alone movies… But hey, at least I will know what to do in that case!_ ” I chuckled at my own joke.

The phone sprung to life the moment I picked it up, not protected by a password or ID touch. I shrugged at the lack of protection – their loss was my gain – and dialled Carson’s number. It was the first number I had been forced to learn, long before I ever got a phone, and I was pretty sure I could still recall it when I was old, grey and wrinkly.

The phone dialled and I pressed it against my ear, pressing a hand against my excited heart. Then a long beep sounded, followed by an annoying monotone voice. “The number you’re trying to reach does not exist.”

The lump in my throat was back in an instant and the phone shook in my hands. “ _Nothing to worry about_ ,” I quickly assured myself, disconnecting the call and dialling the number again. “ _I probably pressed a wrong number in my haste to call him…_ ”

I hadn’t.

The elephant on my chest plopped back down. Blood pounded in my ears, pushing all other sounds away, and the phone slipped through my shaking fingers.

“The number you’re trying to reach does not exist.”

“ _Oh God! Oh God, oh God, oh God! No, no, no, no, no, NO! This is not happening! This cannot be happening!_ ”

My hands disappeared into my hair, tugging at the- the familiar wavy hair? I didn’t have wavy hair. I had a head full of stubborn curls. Where were the curls I despised so much? And why wasn’t my hair braided back? I had put a braid in it before going to school and hadn’t taken it out. I would never do that! That was a recipe for disaster. My unruly hair knitted together and refused to do what I wanted it to if I slept with it down.

I twisted around, trying to desperately find a mirror. There! There was a mirror squeezed in between the two doors I hadn’t noticed before.

I made a beeline for it, the world spinning before my eyes as I came to a stop in front of it. I closed my eyes, leaning heavily against the wall, and took a few deep breaths in. Then when I was no longer swaying on my feet, I opened my eyes and stared into the mirror.

I choked on air, a punch landing firmly in my stomach.

An unfamiliar girl was staring straight back. An unfamiliar but stunning girl. No, not stunning: beautiful. She was the type of girl that had men turn when she passed them, and then had them walking into a lamppost because they weren’t watching where they were going. She was unnaturally beautiful.

And definitely not me.

“ _She stepped right out of one of those cheesy Harlequin novels where the girl is beautiful and the man rich and sex on two legs. Seriously, who is she? And why is she staring at me through the mirror? We look absolutely nothing alike._ ”

The beauty in the mirror was a ginger, whereas I had inherited the auburn red from my Irish ancestors. Her hair fell down in natural beach waves that I was jealous of, my own hair often resembled a mop. Our skin tones were the same, but hers was littered with adorable little freckles. I only had those when my skin was as red as my hair. Her nose was cute and turned up, whereas mine was a little too long and flat, not to mention slightly crooked due a cycling accident.

The only feature we had in common were our eyes: big wide cyan-blue eyes that held an innocence that drew people in. An innocence I gladly used to my advantage. I basically got away with everything if I made big eyes at someone and added a small pout. Only my parents and Carson were immune.

I glared at the image in the mirror. I did not consider myself unpretty. Quite the opposite. I was good-looking and while I wasn’t happy with all my features, I wasn’t ashamed to flash what I had. Yet this girl made feel like one of Cinderella’s ugly stepsisters. She was horrendous for any girl’s self-esteem.

The girl glared back at me, her nose wrinkling in the way that mine did when I was peeved with something.

I blinked, my lips parting in confusion, and she did not just mimic me. She was a perfect reflection. Almost as if she **was** my reflection.

I frowned. The girl’s brows furrowed in the mirror, a look of deep contemplation flickering over her face. “ _But that isn’t possible. She can’t be me and I can’t be her. That would mean I have swapped bodies with someone I have never met or seen before. And that shit only happens in lame Hollywood movies. Or in fanfiction. Really **bad** fanfiction._”

I raised a hand and waved at the girl. She did the same.

I pulled a face – faintly hearing my mother screech in the distance how that would cause wrinkles – and the beautiful face in the mirror copied it perfectly.

I swallowed as my throat tightened even more. My nails dug into my palms and my jaws hurt with how harsh I was clenching them. This wasn’t happening. This couldn’t be happening. It was like I was stuck in some bad dream.

“ _Dream… Yes, that’s it. I must still be dreaming._ ” I pinched myself as hard as I could. Much to my astonishment the pain shot right up my arm and two red marks appeared on the pale skin. Pale skin with freckles. “ _That h-hurt… And I- I don’t have freckles…_ ”

I turned to the mirror girl again, glaring harshly. The glare she shot me back was rather frightening. “Stop it. Thi…” My breath hitched at the sound of my own voice. Gone was the high pitch and the shrillness that I hated to hear on recordings. Gone was the voice as familiar to me as breathing. Instead, I sounded like a bloody Christmas sled.

I stared at the mirror and the girl stared back, her eyes wide and terrified. She reminded me of a frightened doe. My heart was slamming painfully against my ribs, threatening to jump out. I was amazed I couldn’t see it beating through my shirt.

My brows furrowed together as I glanced down at myself. Either I was still hallucinating or I had shrunken. And gained some weight.

My mother put me on a strict diet the moment puberty started. She wanted a model-shaped daughter and she got one. But now? I doubted I would reach my normal 5’8 even if I wore heels. And I was currently supporting some brand-new curves, curves I would kill for on any day of the week. Except today. Today I wished for the lanky tall girl, the one whose chest was as flat as a pancake. The body that was _me_.

I bit my lip until I tasted blood, shaking my head and blinking back the tears. “Pull yourself together, Sybil. This is only one of your messed up dreams. You are dreaming.” I stared desperately at the mirror. “I have to be…” But the ginger girl was the only one staring back.

I pinched myself again, adding two more red spots on my arm. But I didn’t wake up.

I threw open the door on my left side, the one hidden partly behind a very comfortable looking bathrobe. _In my favourite colour!_ When was this nightmare ending?

I barely paid attention to the little bathroom I entered, instead heading straight to the sink and turning the water on. I cupped my hands under the stream and splashed it into my face. Once, twice… After the third time I was awake enough to turn it off again and glance up. Another mirror, a different one, yet the ginger girl was still there.

My knees buckled as the mirror and the girl with it blurred in front of my eyes. “What is going on?” My voice sounded foreign and weird, turning the lump in my throat into an obstacle that cut off all air.

I slumped down on the cold ground, a numbness setting over me that was all too familiar. My vision swirled and blurred, as if I was swimming under water. My chest stopped momentarily moving, my chest too painful to do such a trivial thing as breathing.

Like a blockage suddenly springing free, the air rushed into my lungs and then came out again with a bloodcurdling scream. The intensity rocked my body, sending me into a shiver frenzy, yet I found myself unable to stop screaming. I screamed and wept, the tears blurring my already hazy sight but refusing to fall. My entire body ached as I struggled to keep up right, burned as I screamed.

“Bloom!” Two hands grabbed my shoulders and pulled me up. A woman as familiar to me as the girl I saw in the mirror, was kneeling down beside me. Her brown eyes stared wide and terrified at me. Pure terror was displayed in her eyes and her fingers were digging into my shoulders. Digging and shaking. “Bloom, sweetie, what’s wrong?”

“ _Bloom…?_ ” I stared through a haze at the woman grasping me, only half-aware that I was still scream-crying. “ _Why is she calling me that? My name is not Bloom…_ ”

As if one of my bones snapped back into its socket, something just clicked.

There was nothing wrong with the mirror.

I wasn’t kidnapped.

I wasn’t dreaming.

“ _It is **her** name… No, it is MY name. This is real. I’m in someone else’s body…_”

.

.

.

.

I let out another bloodcurdling scream and fainted. 


	2. Chapter 1

“Bloom, sweetie…” Butterflies swirled in my stomach as a hand gently caressed the hair out of my face. The touch was familiar and loving, holding a tenderness only a mother possessed. “Time to wake up.”

“Five more minutes, mom,” I begged, snuggling deeper under the warm covers with a content smile. “Just five more minutes.”

The person beside me chuckled. “I already gave you an extra half hour. If you don’t get out of bed now, we won’t be able to open the shop on time.” I peeked an eye open. My mom – it was still a little odd to call Vanessa Peters that – was sitting beside me on bed, wearing her usual smile. “Good morning, sweetie.”

I sighed, resigned that I really had to get out of bed despite still being tired to the bone. “Morning, mom.” I slowly sat up, stretching my arms above my head until all the muscles popped back in place. “Any chance you will let me join you later in the shop?”

Vanessa shook her head, her smile never wavering, and rose to her feet. She was already dressed in her usual white shirt and green overall. The only thing she missed was the flower apron around her waist. She had cut her dark hair short a few weeks back, something which I still complimented her on. Now that it was short it curled elegantly and framed her face perfectly.

“What was it this time? Reading or drawing?” She perched her hands on her hips and I couldn’t keep the smile of my face. While Vanessa tried to be stern from time to time, she was as intimidating as the kitten I had gotten for my birthday last year. On second thought… No, the kitten was definitely more intimidating than she was. “Bloom, you know your father and I are immensely proud you graduated top of your class.”

I chuckled. I knew what was coming. She and her husband Mike had been giving me the same lecture – I barely dared to call it – basically every morning for the last two months.

“But…?” I dared cheekily.

“But –” She tapped my nose in reprise, I just giggled. “– you can’t spend the next year reading and drawing all night and sleep all day.”

“I am not.” I yawned, rolling my shoulders until they made that satisfying pop that had Mike running from the room whenever I did it in his presence. “I am helping you in the shop during the day, aren’t I?”

“And I love having you around –” I rolled my eyes fondly at her. “– but you can’t spend the rest of your life working at my shop, sweetheart.”

“Maybe I want to follow in my mom’s footsteps. She is a strong independent woman and I want to be just like her,” I dared her, biting back the smile edging to my lips. “Not to mention I love flowers and helping you in the shop makes me happy. So, why not become a florist?”

Vanessa’s eyes softened and she sat back down beside me on bed, gently caressing another lock of hair out my face. “And that is all I want for you: to be happy.” I leaned into her touch as her hand came to rest on my cheek, the butterflies fluttering happily. “But we both know you are meant for more than being a florist.”

I let out a particular deep breath. “I know, mom. I just…” I shrugged, slumping in defeat. “I don’t know what to do. Sometimes I feel like I am only just getting to know myself. If I am still not sure who I am, then how can I decide what type of work I want to do the rest of my life?”

And that was the truth.

Two years had passed since I had awoken in an unfamiliar room and discovered that somehow, I had ended up in the body of Bloom Peters: the sixteen-year-old daughter of Mike and Vanessa Peters. Till this day I still had no idea how it had happened, if I would ever return to my own body, or what had happened to the real Bloom. It remained a mystery and perhaps – most likely – always would.

Oh, how I had frightened poor Vanessa with my screaming and fainting. I was still trying to make it up to her. Mostly by not giving her any more frights and troubles. So far, I was doing a pretty good job if I said so myself. I was always home before my curfew, helped her in her shop whenever I could, made sure that the house was clean and the fridge was full so that neither she and Mike had to worry about that after a long day at work, and done everything in my power to get good grades. Mike even complained – though he didn’t actually mean it – that I was driving him up the wall and that he wanted to see some rebellion, that I wasn’t a normal teenager. Whenever I offered to start slamming the doors once in a while or throw a big destructive party, he quickly changed his mind. Mike liked to spent money as much as any man, but not to replace things when it was truly necessary. According to him, the necessary changes always had the worse timing.

I had graduated two months ago: valedictorian of Gardena Senior High. Something my high school rival Mitzi Tyndall still wasn’t too happy about and I enjoyed reminding her off when she was especially unpleasant. Which she basically was every time I saw her.

But while all my friends and classmates were preparing for college, I had no such plans.

What was I supposed to choose?

Until I had ended up in Bloom’s body, my mother had made all the rules and the plans. She had practically forced me into the world of fashion. That was the path she had laid out for me and I was to follow it, whether I liked it or not. After a few years of walking the runway, I would have made a big enough name that I could catch a big fish and marry, and then settle down in some nice big mansion and turn a blind eye while my much older husband was off working and having an affair with his secretary.

Basically a copy of my mother’s life.

In many ways, ending up in Bloom’s body and taking over her life was one of the greatest gifts I had ever gotten. I knew that as well. I awoke every morning with a smile, the sight of my perfect room reminding me again and again how lucky I was. But no matter how happy and grateful I was, that helped little in deciding what I wanted to do with my new life. That the choices were unlimited wasn’t exactly helping either.

So I had decided to take a break. A gap year to discover myself and spent some more time with Mike and Vanessa. They were the parents I had never been blessed with and had always wished for. And as the selfish person I was, I just wasn’t ready to give them up. Not yet, anyway.

“What you are searching for you won’t just find.” Vanessa gently tilted my chin up, smiling warmly. My eyes watered at the love and care in her eyes. “You will have to try different things, things out of your comfort zone and away from your father and I. After all, if it was within your comfort zone, you would have found it already. But I also know how frightening that is.” She pressed a kiss on my forehead, the butterflies tickled me pleasantly. “Now time to get out of bed. I made pancakes.”

“I will be down in a minute,” I promised as Vanessa got up. She shot me a warm smile before leaving the room. My shoulders instantly slumped and I dropped my head in my hands.

In my heart I knew Vanessa was right, but I wasn’t ready to stand on my own two feet yet. Hell, I couldn’t even fry an egg without burning it. And then there was that nagging feeling, the one I just couldn’t shake off or place. As if I was waiting for something… Something that would give my life meaning…

“Mrauw!”

I instantly snapped out of my thoughts on the future and the meaning of life, and my heart fluttered. “Kiko.”

Kiko was the grey-white kitten I had gotten for my birthday last year. He was adorable and just the right amount of crazy. He was completely grey, but with white whiskers, a white bib, cute white slippers, a white belly, and white armpits. He looked ridiculous, especially when I picked him up and the white hairs just stuck out from under his legs, as if he needed a good shave.

Kiko padded into my room, the tip of his tail twitching in greeting. When he noticed I was beaming at him, he hurried forward and jumped on my bed to give me a headbutt. “Hey, little guy.” I scratched the top of his head, earning myself a satisfied purr. “Have you driven Mike crazy yet?”

Mike and Kiko were not a good combination. It had been Vanessa’s idea to get me a pet, because science claimed pets helped against anxiety and depression. Mike had agreed but ever since I had picked out Kiko from the shelter, the two were at war. Kiko did everything in his power to drive Mike up the wall, whether it was to sit in front of the television when Mike was trying to watch sports, switching off his alarm when he had to go to work early, or knock over anything breakable while Mike was yelling at him to leave it alone. Just typical cat stuff, but only with Mike.

Vanessa and I thought it was hilarious.

Kiko fell onto his side as I scratched under his kin, draping himself over my lap and urging me with loud purrs to keep going. “What do you think, little guy? Are you coming to the store today?”

Whenever I helped Vanessa in her shop, Kiko would tag along. Usually he sat on the counter and welcomed the customers with a meow and those willing with a cuddle. When he had grown tired of that, he would lie in the sun or beg me for attention. People loved him. Vanessa claimed her customers had tripled ever since Kiko tagged along and some came to her store just to see him. And like most cats, Kiko simply _loved_ the attention.

I scratched my little devil behind his ear before swatting him off my lap and getting up. The room hadn’t changed one bit since I had woken up in it. The pile of drawings had increased and I had added another bookcase – and filled it – but that was it. Kiko slept beside me on the bed and all his stuff – litterbox, scratching post, food, etc – were downstairs. And since it already was my dream bedroom, why change anything about it?

I quickly grabbed my working clothes – some old ripped jeans and a yellow tank top – and disappeared into my little bathroom. It wasn’t much, just big enough to squeeze in a shower, sink and toilet, but I was over the moon with it. Especially when I first started living with Mike and Vanessa, I was a bit reserved to strip down naked in front of them. Even now I preferred my privacy.

I had slowly gotten used to my new appearance, though I had changed one thing. No, two things actually. I had dyed my hair. While the ginger steadily had grown on me, I found myself missing my own auburn colour, which was why I now supported auburn waves rather than ginger ones. And to celebrate my graduation, I had gotten my ears pierced: two in the earlobe and one in my ear shell. It was the only rebellious thing I had ever done, though Mike and Vanessa did not consider it that rebellious. They had even supported me in that choice.

The rebelling had been more against my mother than against them anyway.

My mother… Caroline Blackburn. She would be mortified if she saw me now, but that only made me happy. No matter how I tried to forget about her, there were still occasions I heard her criticize me. I doubted I would ever be able to completely shake her off.

One of the first things I had done after the shock had worn off was Google my parents. Apparently, I had ended up in some alternate universe where Caroline and Leonard Blackburn lived, but had no daughter. Carson – God bless the man – on the other hand didn’t exist as far as I could find. Instead, the Blackburn family butler was an older fellow named Donald Pierce. A terrible name for a butler, but a good one for a villain.

Everything else was much the same. Obama was still chosen as the first black president in the USA. 9/11 was very much a thing. Hitler had still tried to wipe out an entire culture. The only differences were that some of the old cartoons I had watched as a child hadn’t been created of yet. Possibly there were more differences but so far I hadn’t come across them.

I pulled my hair into a tail, Kiko walking in circles around my legs and meowing loudly, and added some light make-up. I wasn’t a big fan of make-up. I was too lazy to remove it at the end of the day, or even to apply it in the morning. But if I didn’t wear any, people constantly came up to me and asked whether I was alright and if it wasn’t better if I sat down. That got annoying real fast, hence some eyeshadow, a foundation and some lip-gloss. Nothing more, nothing less, and it was rather easy to wash off at the end of the day.

There were things about Bloom’s body that I never quite got used to but couldn’t exactly change. Bloom was rather tiny, not even reaching 5’4 whereas I had been 5’8. If I wanted to reach my own height, I needed some serious high heels. I had tried that once and nearly broken both my ankles. The other thing I just couldn’t get used to were her curves. I went from push-up bras with filled cups to buying bras that made my bosom not quite as big as it really was.

Once upon a time I had dreamed and wished for some more cleavage. Now I discovered it wasn’t all that cracked up. Sometimes my back hurt just because of the weight I carried at the front. And then there were the bras themselves. If I desired a bra that was comfortable, pretty and supported me enough, I had to pay a small fortune. Seriously, what was up with that? It isn’t like only rich people have big boobs.

Kiko meowed again and stretched himself out against my leg just as I finished applying my lip-gloss. I absently petted his head, but he swiped his paw at me.

“Right…” I shot him a radiant smile, the movement all too familiar. “Thanks, little guy.” This time when I went to pet him, he basically grabbed my hand and pulled it to him.

The other thing I still often forgot about was the medication. Bloom – and by default I – had some serious mental health problems. She swallowed alprazolam for her anxiety, escitalopram for her depression, and quetiapine for her psychoses and to help her sleep. I had tried to go without them for a while. Not one of my brightest ideas.

I learned that her dreams – my dreams – were rather unpleasant. Extremely unpleasant even. Without the quetiapine I woke up several times during the night in cold-sweat and with tears streaming down my face, and the sleep I did get was restless and therefore not nearly enough for my body and mind to recover. Without the alprazolam and escitalopram my emotions were all over the place and I constantly saw auras. Worse was the pressure on my chest, whispering that something was wrong, that I was needed elsewhere and urgently at that, and the continuous rush of adrenaline whenever my mind thought danger was lurking around the corner while that was far from the case.

I hadn’t even lasted a week before starting on the medication again. And whenever I forgot to take them… Well, I would know by the time the day was nearing its end.

Luckily Kiko helped me to remember taking them. There was not a day that passed by where I wasn’t happy to have him around and grateful that Vanessa had insisted on getting me a pet for my – well, Bloom’s – birthday.

After taking my medication, I shot a hesitant glance in the mirror. Two years but I still wasn’t used to the face that stared back. Especially Bloom’s beauty tended to catch me off-guard. It had taken some time for me to get used to calling Mike and Vanessa mom and dad, and to being called Bloom, but there was something just wrong about calling Bloom’s beauty **my** beauty. I had already taken up so much of her life and claimed it as my own that for some reason claiming that as well… It just felt _wrong_.

I shook my head dismissively. “ _Don’t dwell on it, Sybil. You will just feel guilty and scared._ ” And both tended to worsen my mood. The guilt came from living Bloom’s life, calling her lovely parents my own, and making decisions for her. At the same time, I was terrified that one day I would wake up and find myself back in London and with my parents. That all this proved to be nothing but a wonderful dream or hallucination.

“Bloom!”

“Coming!” I called back, quickly turning my back to the mirror and picking up Kiko. The cat purred and draped itself over my neck, rubbing his soft chin against my cheek. The best thing about Kiko was how soft he was. Bunny soft.

When I came bouncing down the stairs, I found Mike in the hallway about to leave for work. I shot him a radiant smile. “Morning, dad.”

Mike was a big man in every sense of the word. He stood at 6’0 tall and was a bundle of muscle. Everything about him was strong, everything except his personality. He was a softie by heart, especially to those he loved.

Bloom did not resemble either of her parents. Mike was tall, tanned due to working outside all the time, and had short blonde hair that he smoothed back with a lot of gel and dark blue eyes that twinkled either seriously or amused. There honestly was no in-between. Vanessa on the other hand was a Latina, with dark hair and dark eyes. She had that sway to the music only Latino’s seemed to possess and a body that was slim yet curvy.

A few months after waking up in Bloom’s body I had dared to ask why that was. Surely one of them had to have some red-genes in them if their daughter was a ginger. I wasn’t all that surprised when they admitted that she – I? – was adopted. That confession had been incredibly hard for them, their faces pulled away in agony and tears streaming down their cheeks as if they had committed the greatest offense by admitting their daughter was not truly their daughter.

That was when I had fallen in love with them. I had cried with them, hugged them, and assured them that I loved them nonetheless and they would always be my parents. And I had meant every damn word. Calling them mom and dad had gotten easier afterwards, being called Bloom and reacting to the name as well. By now I was even calling them and my own parents differently: Caroline and Leonard were mother and father, while Mike and Vanessa were mom and dad.

“Good morning, sweetheart.” I hugged Mike tightly, the butterflies fluttering happily as he kissed the top of my head. Mike smelled divine. He used this Hugo Boss aftershave that suited him perfectly and just made him smell like safety. I couldn’t explain it, but he just did.

“Are you already heading to work?” I gazed up at him, frowning worriedly. “You got home pretty late last night.”

Mike chuckled, tapping my nose. I giggled. “And you should know. What were you still doing up at midnight, young lady?”

I shrugged innocently. “Reading.”

Mike rolled his eyes, sighing a bit dramatically. “Oh, boy. Do I want to know which author has you hooked this time?”

“Sarah J. Maas. A Court of Thorns and Roses,” I told him cheerfully. “It is really good. I just couldn’t put it away.”

“Maas…” Mike rubbed his clean-shaved chin absently. “Isn’t that that author that wrote a whole series about an assassin / princess? The one you were addicted on a few months back?”

I nodded. “Huh-huh.”

Mike pinched his nose, shaking his head. “Sweetheart, is this another book about fairies?”

“Fae,” I corrected with a bright smile. “There is a difference.” Mike just shook his head. “Don’t worry, dad. Just because I love fantasy doesn’t mean I believe it’s real.”

I wasn’t sure what had brought me to the Peters or why I was possessing Bloom, but I refused to believe magic had something to do with it. If magic existed, then I would have seen proof of it by now. People would grow old a lot healthier; children wouldn’t end up dying because of some rare type of cancer; car crashes would be a lot less damaging, not to mention that those damned school shootings the USA was infamous for would claim less lives. Magic could heal, couldn’t it? It could protect.

If there was magic, then it sure as hell didn’t exist in Gardena, California, or in the USA for that matter.

Mike pursed his lips. “There is nothing wrong with a good crime novel, you know?”

“Like Miss Marple?” I dared cheekily, chuckling when he glared at me. Mike was a big Agatha Christie’s fan, especially Miss Marple. He loved that “senile old woman”. “Crime is your genre, dad, just as fantasy is mine and cook books are mom’s.” I tiptoed and pressed a kiss on his cheek. “Say hi to the boys for me.”

“Or you could come down to say it yourself during your lunch break,” suggested Mike with an adoring smile. “They would be happy to see you.”

He was a firefighter, had been his whole life. Discovering that had been a little frightening, especially after falling in love with him and Vanessa, and embracing them as my mom and dad. Fires were dangerous and the papers were filled with firefighters getting hurt or even killed while doing their work. Luckily Mike had a group of men around him who were as devoted to him as he was to them. Since meeting them, I wasn’t sitting on pins and needles whenever he had to work and was called out. I couldn’t fully relax, but I wasn’t on the verge of a panic attack.

I arched an eyebrow, the corners of my lips tugging up. “Are you inviting Kiko and me over for lunch?”

Mike’s eyes instantly zoomed in on the cat in my neck and narrowed dangerously. Judging by how Kiko’s tail was swishing, my kitten was glaring straight back. “You are welcome, he isn’t.”

I chuckled. “Another time, dad. I have a date with the park this afternoon.” I gave him another kiss on his cheek. “Be safe.”

“Always.”

Vanessa shook her head at me when I entered the kitchen. “Finally.”

I shot her a blinding smile. “Sorry. I will make it up. Promise.”

She waved a finger at me, a smile breaking through the mask of sternness. “What did I tell you about using your secret weapon on me?” I smiled innocently and she just shook her head, giving up on trying to scold me and allowing her own amusement to slip through.

The secret weapon she was referring to was one of my smiles. Mike had started to call it that after I had used it a little too often on him to get my way and I thought it suiting. Because of Bloom’s beauty, people already found it rather difficult to say no when I requested something. But when I shot them a particular radiant smile and my most pleading look, mixed with a little bit of innocence, it seemed that any earlier reservation they might have had just melted away. They probably realised saying no to me was a battle they couldn’t possibly win. I could be very persuasive when I wanted to.

Vanessa chuckled. “I pity the man who you end up marrying, sweetheart. He will have to use a baseball bat to chase off all your admirers.”

I laughed at that. “It is probably why Andy let me go so easily. He isn’t exactly the violent type.”

Andy Dayton was a good friend of both mine and Bloom, and my ex-boyfriend. He was cute and sweet, not too shabby looking either and he had a gift for music. He was accepted at Juilliard – Juilliard! – and currently preparing to move to New York. I had ended things shortly after we had graduated. Andy was easy to be around, but I wouldn’t exactly say I was or ever had been in love with him. Thinking back on it now, Andy and I had more been like friends who occasionally kissed than boyfriend and girlfriend.

Maybe I had tried to be something more with him because he was the first person outside Mike and Vanessa that I got to know as Bloom.

When I had woken up in Bloom’s body, she had been unconscious for about a day. Apparently, she had fainted while she and Andy had been at the park. How he did not know. He had been away parking their bicycles and upon joining her, he had found her unconscious. Being the good friend he was, he had called Mike. Since in the USA you had to pay for an ambulance ride, Mike and his boys had taken Bloom home. Vanessa had called the GP who had come over. His diagnosis: fever. But because she was still breathing on her own and her fever wasn’t dangerously high, Bloom was allowed to remain home. And I had ended up in her body not long after.

It was partly why Vanessa hadn’t freaked out more when she had found me screaming and crying on the bathroom floor. She thought I had been delirious from the fever, something I never corrected her on.

Anyway, Andy as the good friend he was had visited every day until the GP had given me the all clear and I was allowed to leave my bed. He would entertain me for hours on what I – well, Bloom – had missed at school and naturally he brought me my homework. It was partly because of him and his stories that I managed to “become” Bloom relatively easily.

When I told Andy I wanted to end things, he had been relieved. I guessed he had been thinking something similar but Andy was a good guy by heart and didn’t want to upset or hurt anyone if he could help it. Least of all me – erm, Bloom? No, both…

Whatever.

We agreed to go back to being friends and to keep in touch. I doubted we really would since I was staying here in California and he would soon be on the other side of the country and working hard on his career. But that was alright. I was grateful for everything Andy had done for me and for Bloom, both intentionally and unintentionally. For that he would always have a special place in my heart. Just like Carson.

Vanessa glanced at the clock, a small frown nestled between her brows, while I quickly shoved some pancakes into my mouth. Vanessa and Mike didn’t care about diets and weight, and while my mother proved to be hard to shrug off, there were moments I enjoyed immensely that I could eat whatever I wanted to without worrying about the consequences. Pizza was currently my favourite thing in the world. Something I had in common with Bloom, whose favourite cuisine was also pizza. Or that was what Mike had told me.

After I swallowed my last bite and given Kiko a scrap, I quickly washed my plate and cutlery – the Peters’ home didn’t have dishwasher unfortunately – before turning to Vanessa with another blinding smile. “Done!”

Vanessa chuckled, shaking her head. “One of these days, Bloom…” She shook her head again, leaving me guessing at the rest of her sentence.

* * *

The rest of the morning passed in a flash.

Vanessa had her own flower shop, one of the handful in Gardena. Since it was summer and temperatures were about 78, not an awful lot of people came around to buy flowers. Most were on holiday and those who remained behind weren’t buying flowers since they withered easily in this weather.

Knowing this as well, Vanessa had invested in something besides flowers from an early start. The shop was currently divided into three areas. In the centre were the flowers and bouquets. Then to one side were the usual houseplants in different pots, and on the other side was tableware. After I had suggested Emma Bridgewater – an English brand I had loved back in London – Vanessa had taken to it and imported it. She was currently one of the few people in the USA who sold it, and that showed itself in the sales and online orders.

Vanessa had taught me a lot regarding flowers and how to make a bouquet these last two years, but I wasn’t even remotely a florist. Thus, she handled the flowers and bouquets while I busied myself with the online orders, welcoming any customer to the shop, and the cash register.

After a busy morning, things quieted down. Between twelve and two we barely had any customers, it being lunch time and all that. Luckily this also gave Vanessa and I the chance to eat without one less person in the store becoming a real problem. Twelve to one was my usual break and once I was back, Vanessa would stretch her legs.

Mrs. Ogden – a sweet old woman who lived across the street from the shop – was one of our regulars. She basically visited every day for a quick chat and usually left with one or two new items. That afternoon she came in for a bouquet, petting Kiko while waiting for Vanessa to finish her bouquet.

Mrs. Ogden was still chatting when I returned after ordering three sandwiches. Especially with my tendency to sleep in, we usually left the house without packing a lunch. Luckily one of our neighbours was a deli and they made sure our orders were ready to be paid for and grabbed before rush hour started.

“I’m back.” Vanessa turned to me and smiled when I skipped into the shop. Vanessa’s skill never stopped amazing me, no matter how long I was around her. She didn’t even pause with turning a handful of flowers into a beautiful bouquet for Mrs. Ogden, just continued adding one new flower after another into the bouquet without even looking at it. “Two club sandwiches and one hoagie.” I blew a strand of hair out of my face as I stopped by the counter. Vanessa was busy behind it while Mrs. Ogden sat on one of our chairs beside it with a cup tea. I handed her one of the club sandwiches, just as she had requested. “Here you go, Mrs. Ogden.”

The old woman flashed her yellowish teeth at me in a grateful smile, her sparkling eyes hidden behind some thick round glasses. “Why, thank you, dear. You are a darling.”

“No line this time?” Vanessa glanced to the front of the shop. When the deli had rush hour, the line usually passed right in front of the shop, but this afternoon it was absent.

I chuckled. “The tourists have invaded Gardena again and they don’t know they are supposed to head our way. Instead, they are blocking everything from the deli to Ms. Beverly.”

The two women shook their heads as one. Ms. Beverly was a clothing store and the owner – Ms. Beverly Hill – was a rather unpleasant woman who started yelling whenever her shop was blocked by the deli’s hungry customers.

“Yeah, she wasn’t overly pleased.” I put Vanessa’s sandwich into the fridge behind the counter. “She got her hands on poor George while he was trying to get people to form a line into our direction. I thought he might faint with how pale he was.”

“Awful woman,” scoffed Mrs. Ogden. “Always has been. She is one of my former students, you know?” I smiled amused. Mrs. Ogden was a retired teacher and liked to talk about the good old days, especially about former students of hers. The story of Beverly Hill she had shared with Vanessa and I many times, and then some. By now Vanessa probably knew the story even better than Mrs. Ogden did herself with often she had heard it. “None of the kids ever gave me any trouble, except her. Young Beverly Hill. She would throw a tantrum over even the slightest thing. If I got a dollar for every time she threatened to tell her parents this and that…” She made a rude gesture. “Well, I would have been able to visit my grandchildren a little more often.”

Vanessa nodded politely, wearing what I liked to call her customer smile. It was a smile, but not a real one. As if she was smiling to hide what she was really thinking. And she only wore it while working, and on occasions when Mike was talking utter nonsense.

“Poor George,” echoed Vanessa, turning the conversation away from Mrs. Ogden’s memoires. “I hope his father came to his aid.”

“Rush hour, mom,” I reminded her easily. “Though I am sure that if he could have been spared, he would have saved him.” I shrugged. “Anyway, I decided to remind Beverley that while her nasty personality is a known fact in town, her customers might be put off by it. It was enough to remind her she was currently yelling in front of a whole line of potential customers, who were – _shockingly_ – not all that happy with all that yelling while waiting for something to eat. Can’t blame them either. I would be right nasty too.”

Vanessa clicked her tongue disapprovingly. “Bloom, how many times do I have to tell you not to agitate her even further?”

I shrugged. “Hey, I was just standing up for George. And I doubt I can blow it even more with Beverly. After all, she is a good friend of Tyndalls. No doubt Mitzi has been blackening my name long before the woman ever got to know me.” Vanessa just sighed and shook her head. I grinned. “It’s fine, mom,” I assured her. “Beverly Hill is probably the last person in Gardena who scares me.”

“You ought to have a bit more faith in your daughter, Vanessa,” agreed Mrs. Ogden, nodding wisely. I hid my laugh behind my hand. She would make a fine Miss Marple. Mike could be the clueless police lieutenant. “She is a force to be reckoned with.” She winked at me and I quickly lowered my hand, shooting her a grin in acknowledgement. “Just like her mother. Oh, the stories I can tell you, dearie…”

I laughed out loud this time. “I am sure you can, Mrs. Ogden.” And I had no doubt she had already told them as well, just not to me. Bloom on the other hand… “But I am afraid it will have to be another time.” I turned back to Vanessa. “I’ve got my phone –” Her lips parted but I beat her to it. “– and yes, the sound is on as well.” Vanessa chuckled. “If there is anything, call.”

Vanessa pressed a quick kiss on my temple, not a flower slipping out of place. “Go on, sweetheart. Enjoy the sun.”

“As if that will happen.” I snorted, grabbing my giant sunhat from the counter and depositing it on my head before calling to my kitten. “Come on, Kiko.”

Mrs. Ogden pouted a little as Kiko allowed her one final pet before jumping of the counter and racing after me with his tail straight up in the air. I didn’t even need to pick him up once we were outside. All I had to was open my bicycle basket and he jumped straight in, his eyes glittering eagerly in the sun. I waved at Vanessa and Mrs. Ogden through the window before getting on the bike myself and making my way to the park.

Kiko was a delightful kitten who reminded me more often than not of a dog rather than a cat. He loved going with me to the park and run around, climbing into the trees to hunt for birds. Not that he ever succeeded. The birds knew to find someplace else the moment they saw him coming. Didn’t stop the little terror from trying, though.

Now and then we bumped into a dog. They tended to chase after him. He would fly into the nearest tree and then torment the poor animal by meowing loudly at them and walking back and forth, almost as if he was daring them to come and get him. He wasn’t nearly as brave when there wasn’t a tree around to climb in, though.

The funniest thing about Kiko was how he always came when I called. The dog owners usually gaped when they saw it. Honestly, in the short year I had the little ball of sunshine I had seen him behave and listen better than some dogs.

Kiko hissed in his basket a mere second before a nasal voice yelled: “Hey, Bloom!”

I groaned, rolling my eyes. “ _Speak of the devil and she will appear._ ”

I turned to the scooter which had driven up beside me. “Hi, Mitzi.”

Mitzi Tyndall often reminded me of – well, _me_. She was tall and lanky, flat-chested and fit to be a model which was exactly what she was trying to become. She had that California tan basically everyone around me had – except, you know, _me_ – long luscious black hair and green eyes that since graduating were no longer hidden beneath a pair of sharp glasses. She had started wearing contact lenses since glasses were “so not hot”. Currently she was showing off her midriff and as much skin as possible, wearing shorts and a bikini top.

“ _I would never wear that on a scooter_.” I grimaced as I thought of how painful it would be to fall and skip over the asphalt in what Mitzi was wearing. “ _But hey, with Mitzi it is appearance before anything else. Including safety._ ”

“Still wasting your time on that old bicycle?” she sneered. I guessed her green eyes were gleaming nastily, but since she was wearing the biggest pair of sunglasses I had ever seen, I couldn’t be sure. “Mommy and daddy can’t afford to buy you something a bit more grown-up, huh?”

I wondered often whether Mitzi had always been this unpleasant or if it had started after I had taken over Bloom and started to talk back to her. According to Andy, the Bloom before the fever would just smile and take everything Mitzi said, which was why Mitzi didn’t torment her that much. That Bloom was always shy and kind. Me? I didn’t take shit from anyone, least of all a wannabe like Mitzi, and Mitzi didn’t like that all that much.

“Still destroying the planet and putting yourself on an even stricter diet by sitting on that polluting death-trap?” I shot back with my most innocent smile. “Didn’t mommy and daddy tell you that exercise is good for you?” My eyes gleamed wickedly. “Or that you should wear protective gear?”

Mitzi hadn’t been paying attention to the road, too busy sneering at me. I had and cut her off to take the corner and get to the park. She shrieked loudly – Kiko hissed in response – at the unexpectedness of it all. Her scooter swayed, once and twice, before protesting loudly as she hit the brakes.

I laughed, her cursing and yelling drifting after me. “A few more weeks and she will be gone. Hopefully I will never have to see her again.” Kiko meowed and I winked at my kitten. “The crime rate is pretty high in Los Angeles after all. One can hope, hmm?”

The park – which I practically visited every single afternoon during my lunchbreak – was only a five-minute ride from Vanessa’s shop. I had a favourite spot, away from the paths and hidden between the trees. It was secluded and most importantly, it was in the shadow.

Kiko grew restless and started meowing as I got off the bike and rolled it to our spot. “Alright, alright,” I told him with a laugh. “Hold your horses.” He was off the moment I opened the basket, running straight past the nearest trees to his favourite spot. There was a clearing not too far where squirrels ruled. And he just loved to chase after them.

I laughed, watching him disappear in a flurry of grey and white, placing my bike against a tree before sinking down on the soft grass and removing my hat. My shoulders were already a little sore due to the exposure to the sun. Another thing Bloom and I had in common: our skins hated sunlight and burned easily.

I hummed quietly at the silence surrounding me. Of course, I could hear the distant hum of cars, the chatter of people walking through the park, and even the heavy footfall of someone running, but still tranquillity surrounded me. I could hear the wind ruffle the leaves, the bees buzzing around me as they searched for nectar, and the birds singing their finest songs.

“ _It was never this peaceful in London_ ,” I lamented sadly, watching as a bee paused mid-air to rub its little legs over its head. “ _And everything was too quiet at home._ ” I smiled as the bee shot away. “ _I hope this will last…_ ”

My biggest nightmare was that I would be ripped away from this life. That whoever had messed up and put me in Bloom’s place, realised their mistake and righted it. That I would go back to being Sybil Blackburn, the girl whose life was dictated by her mother.

“ _No._ ” I instantly shook my head, unwrapping my sandwich and removing the ham. I always saved it for Kiko. “ _Even if I go back to my own body, I will never go back to that life. I will tell mother where she can stick her dreams. Hell, she can even disown me and kick me out. I will manage._ ” I grimaced. “ _I hope…_ ”

Truth was, I had no idea what I would do or say if I returned to my own body and came face to face with my mother once again. I liked to believe I was finally strong and brave enough to stand up to her. But part of me worried. There was a reason I had never stood up to her before, why I bowed my head and said “yes, mother” whenever she desired something and it wasn’t because I was a coward.

A hiss snapped me out of my thoughts and I glanced up, frowning when I saw my fur-ball running straight at me. His ears were turned flat on its little head and his hair pointed straight up. I had honestly never seen him this fluffed up before.

I sniggered as he flew onto my lap, turning into the direction he had come from and growling lowly. “Whatever is the matter, Kiko? Have the squirrels decided to gang up against you? I told you that was bound to happen.”

I had barely finished my sentence when I felt it: a harsh pull beneath my midriff. The air was suddenly thick and beckoning me forward, nipping at my exposed skin in a way that was both pleasant and unpleasant.

I put my sandwich down, not even lamenting that I hadn’t taken a single bite. Kiko growled again when I scooted him off my lap and got to my feet. I hardly noticed.

Excitement was bubbling in my stomach as I approached whatever was calling out to me. Was this what I had been searching for? Why I felt like I was needed elsewhere while I was off my medication?

As I neared the clearing, my breath hitched and every single hair on my body stood straight up. The air was even thicker than before and buzzing with something I couldn’t quite place. It was almost like the energy we had once generated during physics, except it was different. Purer.

“ _Addicting…_ ” I realised with a start. I hesitated for a moment, wondering whether it was wise to keep going. My curiosity won it from my caution.

My jaw landed on the floor, my eyes nearly popping out when I reached the clearing, hiding half behind a tree, and discovered what exactly had startled my poor kitten.

And it was not in the least what I had expected.

“What the fuck…?”

In the clearing that was usually only occupied by squirrels and a stray dog – for some reasons most people and animals did not like to go near the clearing – was a group of people. No, “people” wasn’t the right word but I had no idea what to call them either.

In the middle stood a tall blonde girl in the oddest outfit I had ever seen. It was almost as if every inch of her body was covered in sparkling pale-yellow mail. Yet over it she wore a long one-shoulder top that fell open by her waist like some sort of dress, and under it some shorts. A golden belt shimmered around her waist, keeping the flowing dress-top-thing close, and on her wrists sparkled more gold. They reminded me of those clasps Wonder Woman had. Her hair was braided into an astonishing crown that caught my attention for quite some time, and in it she wore a golden tiara. As if that wasn’t weird enough, on her back were wings. Monarch butterfly wings, except they were transparent and even shimmered in the sunlight that fell through the trees.

If only she was the weirdest of the bunch.

Surrounding her were terrifying creatures that made me want to scream and run back to Kiko. They walked on all fours with their backs bent and…

“ _Oh dear God, are that bones sticking out of their skin?!_ ” I nearly screamed, my stomach twisting at the sight. “ _Oh sweet Jesus, they ARE!_ ”

The ugly creatures seemed somewhat human, except on several places the grey-white skin was pulled back and revealed actual bones. Their vertebrae were sticking out like needles and I could count their ribs from a distance since there was nothing covering them. The rest of the body was in different variations of decay, but the skin was tight around everything. I could see every muscle and every tendon. They had no hair, and no feet but rather walked on stubs, and their fingers were long and digging into the earth. They wore no clothing – not that they had anything that needed to be covered – and made this weird growling noise that sent shivers down my spine. The worst were their heads. They were just plain skulls. There was no skin to cover the muscles. They missed their lower jaw and some eyes. Instead black skin hung down their cheeks like a bib and bright green lights shimmered out of their sockets.

“ _Oh God, in what kind of messed of universe did I end up?_ ”

The final member of the odd group was a giant. He would tower above me and his hands were as big as my head. He was as bald as a coot, but had thick dark eyebrows and crazy looking sideburns. He was as enormous in height as in width. Boy, did he need a diet. I could hide three of myself behind him and there still would be plenty of room. And unlike the terrifying creatures, he seemed much more alive. Not that that was all that difficult. His eyes were oddly coloured but at least he had eyes, and bones weren’t sticking out of him either. Much to my relief he was also dressed. In brown overalls?

I frowned, a sense of déjà vu washing over me as I observed the odd group. “ _Why does this seem familiar…?_ ”

I had barely finished my observation when the group abruptly began to move. The terrifying creatures jumped forward and attacked the girl. Instantly her wings moved and she flew out of their reach. She yelled something I couldn’t quite make out – it sounded like sun something – and then a flash followed. The next moment she was grasping a sceptre – gold, why wasn’t I surprised? – in her hands that worsened the déjà vu feeling.

“ _I know I have seen this before, but where?_ ”

The girl yelled something again, pointing her sceptre – was that thing glowing? – at the two nearest creatures. A light surrounded them and they weren’t happy with it by their growls and screeches. The light brightened and the creatures exploded before my eyes into a cloud of dust. Two more came at the girl. She dodged them easily and gave the nearest a roundhouse kick that had it slam against the nearest tree. The creature turned to dust just like the earlier two had.

“ _Sweet Jesus, I am watching someone fly…_ ” I pinched myself, but the scene before me remained unchanged. The flying girl fought the ugly monsters and I could only stare at them. “ _What the hell did I eat? I must be freaking high, or hallucinating. Did they put mushrooms on my sandwich? I don’t even like mushrooms._ ”

A loud roar ripped me out of my inner monologue and I gazed up just in time to see the giant run to the girl. This time she wasn’t fast enough. He hit her like a sledgehammer, the force enough to destroy someone’s entire ribcage. Not the girl. She just sailed through the air and landed on the ground with a loud thud, barely a few feet away from me.

She cried out on the impact, her sceptre flying out of her hands. It sailed through the air, further and further away from her until landing and skipping over the grass. And stopped directly beside me.

I stared at it, my heart in my throat. Time came to a halt, noise faded away, even the light dimmed. It was just me and the sceptre.

The sceptre was tall, taller than me, with a round crown that seemed to resemble the sun and moon in one: the sun was made out of solid gold with between the rays little diamonds, the moon was created from dark blue jewels and found itself in the centre of the sun.

The air sizzled around me, my fingers prickling and urging me to pick it up. I could only stare at the sceptre in awe. My skin tingled and burned, a lightness settling over me that I had only experienced once when I had tried some pot. My cheeks hurt from the wide smile that had crept its way onto my face, yet there was nothing to smile about.

“ _Remember the monsters?_ ” My hand was already reaching for the sceptre and I couldn’t do anything to stop it. Only observe as my body moved without my consent. What did I even want with the thing? Sure, it had a nice sparkle and I just loved sparkly stuff, but did I truly desire a sceptre? “ _Stop reaching for it. With how your hands are shaking you won’t even be able to hold it, you idiot. Not to mention that those monsters will certainly come after you if you pick it up._ ”

“Kill her!” bellowed a voice, ripping me out of the trance.

My head snapped up and I saw the remaining creatures bouncing towards the girl who was still on the ground. Their growls filled the air and their jaws were snapping, which was astonishing because they didn’t even have a lower one!

“ _They are going to kill her!_ ”

Without another second thought I grabbed the sceptre – it was a lot lighter than I expected – and jumped into the clearing, in front of the girl. “Back off!”

The creatures instantly stopped, but growled lowly. Chills ran down my spine as I found their green stares fixated solely on me. Were they licking their lips? Ugh, disgusting!

“ _Oh, Sybil. What are you doing?_ ” I quivered as I stared at the creatures, keeping the sceptre bravely in front of me. I didn’t feel brave. Quite the opposite, I had to constantly adjust the sceptre to keep it from slipping out of my numb trembling fingers. “ _You are going to get yourself kill._ ”

The air around me hummed, buzzing and dancing around me, running over my exposed skin and leaving a trail of goosebumps into their wake. It was like static electricity, but more palpable, as if it would drip through my fingers like water if I reached out for it.

The creatures growled again and the giant cocked his head as he observed me. I bared my teeth in a snarl, tightening my fingers around the golden sceptre when it slipped almost out of my hands again. “Back off!” I repeated, trying to sound brave and intimidating. “Leave her alone, or I swear…”

I wasn’t even sure what I would do, but I was going to do something.

The giant seemed to guess I was all bark and no bite and threw his head back, his laughter echoing through the trees. I almost squeaked and dropped the sceptre, to run off in fright.

“Kill them both! Get me that sceptre!”

The creatures instantly jumped forward, growling hungrily. I screamed and purely on instinct, threw the sceptre forward as if it was a stick I could use to swack people over the head. I didn’t hit anything. Instead a reddish light shot out of the sceptre, racing to the creatures like a laser beam and slamming straight into them. They were knocked back, flowing right out of the clearing.

My jaw dropped, the sceptre slipping out of my fingers and falling on the ground with a “clang”. “ _Did I do that? No, that’s impossible._ ”

“Come here, you!” I screamed when the giant – appearing out of nowhere – grabbed my wrist and lifted me up in the air as if I was a straw doll. I wiggled and kicked at him to get free, my mind switching between fighting and freezing, but the giant was unbothered by my attempts. Instead he bared his teeth at me. A horrendous smell assaulted me instantly and my eyes watered. “I will break you like a porcelain doll!”

I screamed at the pressure he applied, my wrists feeling like a branch that was about to snap. “ _He is going to kill me!_ ”

I struggled again, fighting with everything I had. “GET OFF ME!!”

What happened next… Well, I wasn’t too sure.

One moment I was hanging in the air, the next I was lying on the ground and trying to catch my breath. My whole body was shaking like a leaf, I couldn’t feel my fingers and breathing was near impossible, as if I had run a marathon. Worse was the cold that surrounded me like icy water.

All in all, it wasn’t pleasant. Not even in the least.

A hand landed on my shoulder as I struggled to breathe. “Are you alright?” I gazed up, squinting as I found myself staring straight up at the sun. In it stood a silhouette. No, not a silhouette. An actual person. It was the girl. She smiled warmly down at me, the sceptre sparkling once more in her hand. “Take it easy. That was some impressive magic you used.”

“ _Magic?_ ” I just stared at her, but her attention was no longer on me.

She took a pose in front of me – much like I had done earlier – and pointed her sceptre at the giant. Only he and a handful of those ugly creatures remained.

“I have my sceptre back,” she growled at the giant. I peeked past her, finding him on his back on the other side of the clearing. The remaining creatures gazed aimlessly around as if they weren’t sure what to do next. “You don’t scare me anymore, you ugly beast.”

Another flash followed and this time I noticed how a beam of what seemed pure sunlight shot out of the sceptre and towards the giant and his minions. At the same time another light – this one much darker and almost purple – surrounded her opponents and just like that they were gone. The bean of sunlight hit the trees they had been standing in front of and lit them up, yet when the light died down none of the trees had sustained any damage. The clearing was hardly unscathed, minus the ground surrounding me. That was utterly scorched.

I blinked at where the giant and the creatures had been but no longer were. They had disappeared into thin air. I had shot something out of a sceptre and defeated some of those creatures. The numbness washing over me prickled my senses, alerting me of something. I just couldn’t remember what.

“Thank goodness they are gone.” The girl let out a deep sigh, the sceptre disappearing in another sunny flash. I stared at her, my heart slamming against my chest.

“ _What just happened?_ ”

Suddenly the girl’s knees gave out and she slumped forward, landing directly beside me on the grass. A final flash surrounded her and suddenly she was dressed differently. Gone were the wings, the mail, and all the gold. Instead, she wore a cheerful summer dress that looked way too expensive to be on the floor, and some heels that put Louboutin’s to shame.

My breath caught in my throat as the puzzle pieces finally clicked into place. Everything suddenly made sense, why I had been searching for some meaning, what had drawn me to this place, why the whole fight scene was like a bad déjà vu. Even how I had fought the giant and those creatures now made sense.

I had seen it before, as a child.

“ _Winx Club doesn’t exist in this world because it IS this world. I am in a kid’s cartoon! Worse, I am the main character of said kid’s cartoon!_ ”

And with that, the world turned black.


	3. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to all those who commented and left kudos. I had not expected this many reactions.  
> Special thanks to Smiling_Seshat who pointed out my mix-up of defiantly and definitely. Until you pointed it out, I honestly hadn't noticed it. Thank you! English is not my native language. I'm Dutch ;) which is why there are a few snide remarks about that in this story :)  
> Enjoy!

When I came to, the first thing I registered was that my skin was painful and burning. Something was also tickling my nose, almost as if a feather was being drawn back and forth over it, and there was another presence at my back.

My eyes fluttered open and I instantly reeled back. There was a nose right in my face! I hit something, something that groaned, and I twisted around in more horror. There was a girl curled up beside me.

I gazed around in a daze. Scorched grass, trees, blue sky above me…

“ _It wasn’t a dream…_ ” My stomach dropped as I stared at the girl. “ _No, not a girl. Stella._ ” I choked, my heart thumping loudly. “ _Dear God, I have to be dreaming! I can’t really be in the Winx Club!_ ” I reached over to the girl and gave her a little prod. She groaned in protest, turning onto her other side, but not waking up. “ _She is real! No, no, no, NO! Body swapping is one thing but ending up in a cartoon… I feel like I am stuck in some bad fanfiction! Really bad fanfiction! This isn’t real! Magic and fairies aren’t REAL!_ ”

“ _Neither is body swapping yet here you are._ ”

I gritted my teeth. Now that was a voice I could have gone without. “ _Hello, mother._ ” I choked as more details came rushing back. “ _Oh, no! Vanessa! What time is it? How long have I been out? She must be so worried!_ ” I scrambled to my feet and swayed dangerously. My legs were made out of lead and my body was aching all over, like I had been hit by a truck and then had a piano dropped on top of me. “ _Is that what magic does to you? Great, just great. Why would you use it if these are the consequences?_ ” I slapped a hand to my forehead. “ _Will you stop that? Just listen to yourself, talking about magic and consequences. You are in a fucking cartoon, Sybil!_ ”

I turned back to Stella, who was still out cold and more than a little pale. Wasn’t she supposed to be the fairy of the sun and the moon, not to mention the princess of Solaria? The realm of the sun? How could she possibly be pale?

“ _She is still tanner than you._ ”

I scowled at the voice. “ _Why **must** you sound like mother?_”

I quickly searched for my phone. Luckily it still worked. The protective screen was cracked but that was why I had the thing, and other than that, it seemed undamaged.

The clock told me I hadn’t been out that long. My break wasn’t even over yet. “ _Oh, thank God! Vanessa hasn’t been worrying herself sick._ ” I tucked my phone back in my pocket before sitting back on the ground and crossing my legs. Kiko – the one who had been tickling my nose I realised – was examining Stella, sniffing gently while his ears twitched back and forth. The girl did not steer in the least, barely even scrunched her nose when he tickled her. “Now what to do with you?”

I perched an elbow on one knee and rested my chin on my palm, carefully observing Stella.

Winx Club had been my favourite cartoon for the longest time. I even dared to say that my love for fantasy and magic had all been kickstarted by the Winx Club. I had watched that first season over and over, too addicted to care that I had seen each episode already four or five times. I had stopped watching around season three. The network hadn’t broadcasted new episodes halfway through the season and eventually I grew tired of watching the same episodes over and over again. I found something new to watch and by the time they picked up on it once more, I had grown over it.

But I didn’t remember any of this.

The girl in front of me looked nothing like the Stella I remembered from the cartoon. Where was her scarcely clad fairy outfit? The pigtails? The unpractical high heels?

Kiko let out a low growl beside me, his eyes nearly popping out as he stared into the distance. My attention instantly snapped to him, my frown deepening. “You are supposed to be a rabbit,” I told him. My kitten paid me no mind. “And if I really am supposed to be _that_ Bloom than why aren’t I wearing flaring jeans and a way too short T-shirt?”

Nothing looked like it had in the cartoon and I was pretty sure I was living in Gardena, California, and not Gardenia. Knut and his ghouls – they were ghouls, right, or was I remembering that wrong? – hadn’t been that scary or homicidal either. Truthfully, the only time a death was truly mentioned was when Tecna sacrificed herself to safe Andros, which was the last episode I had ever seen.

I shuddered. “Can you imagine putting those ghouls in a kid’s show, Kiko? They were scary enough to give **me** nightmares, let alone young children.” But Kiko was still solely focussed on whatever he was focussed on. I grumbled, rubbing my eyes. “Just listen to me. Anyone passing by must think I have finally lost it.” Hell, I was beginning to think I was crazy and stuck in some weird hallucination.

They would be right to think I had lost my marbles. I was sitting in the middle of a clearing in the burning sun with an unconscious cartoon character, being another cartoon character myself. Just hearing me think that to myself was enough to make me wonder whether I wouldn’t be better off in a psychiatric institute.

“ _Yeah, but then again they would have done that the moment I had tried to explain my name is Sybil and not Bloom and I am simply possessing her._ ” I pinched my nose. “ _Marvellous, simply marvellous. I can now officially add hijacking the body of a lost princess from a fictional realm to me resume._ ”

I gazed down at Stella once more, still not sure what I was supposed to do with her. In the cartoon Bloom took her home with her, but how was I supposed to do that? Stella was taller than I was and I was no body-builder. There was no way I could carry her. And even if I could have, that was a recipe for disaster. I wouldn’t make it out of the park before someone halted me and asked me why I was carrying an unconscious girl on my back. I would be in cuffs before I ever made it home.

“ _If I take her home and everything will happen like it did in the cartoon, then Knut and his ghouls will follow us there and attack. I can’t do that to Mike and Vanessa!_ ” I rubbed my temples, feeling a headache rising. “ _But I can’t leave her here. They might come back and she is no shape to fight…_ ”

I turned to Kiko, who had snapped out of his trance and resumed his inspection of Stella. “What do you suggest we do?” Kiko just blinked and I let out a deep sigh. “Oh, this is so messed up!”

I wanted to cry, to run home and crawl into my bed, hide under the covers and forget that any of this happened. My life was already complicated enough with the whole body-switching thing without having to worry about magic and witches and those witches stealing my powers and raising an unbeatable army to spread death and destruction.

I scoffed. “ _Since when did they become **my** powers?_” I groaned, resting my head in my hands. “ _What the fuck am I supposed to do?!_ ”

Kiko meowed softly and crawled into my lap, nudging me gently. I dropped my hands again and scratched his ear. “I am having a bit of a meltdown, little guy.”

Stella stirred for a moment, letting out a pitiful moan, but that was it. She was lying in a rather odd position and the ground wasn’t all that comfortable…

“Damn me and my sympathy.” I sighed, my shoulders slumping. “We can’t leave her here. We will have to find a way to get her home.” Kiko meowed softy, nudging me with his head again. “Yeah, yeah, I know. If I take her home, we will be attacked. I will try to think of a solution to that next. One step at the time. Don’t rush me.” I let out another sigh, a plan slowly forming itself in my head. “Okay, now the big question is: how am I going to explain this to Mike?”

Despite not having an answer, I still called him and told him something had happened at the park and whether he could pick me up. I also called Vanessa and explained the same thing and how I wouldn’t make it back to the shop. I tried to apologize but Vanessa was having none of it and assured me she would see me at home. She could manage the shop on her own.

Mike showed up not long after. When he saw me sitting on the ground with an unconscious girl beside me… Well, I worried for a moment he was having a heart-attack just by the weird faces he pulled and how he grasped at his chest.

After overcoming the initial shock, he hurried forward but rather than checking on Stella, he fell down on his knees beside me and hugged the life out of me. I simply returned it, still too numb to do much else.

“I am alright, dad. Just a little wobbly,” I assured him when he pulled back. His eyes scanned my entire body, pausing on the bruise on my wrist. The one Knut had almost broken. It rather hurt. I would need to put some ice on it once we were home. “I’m really sorry I called you away from work.”

Mike shook his head. “You are more important than work, sweetheart. The boys said so as well.” He pulled me into another embrace. “What the hell happened?”

“ _Right, here comes the difficult part…_ ”

I chewed on my lip uncertainly. “Well… I don’t think you will believe me. Honestly, I am still having trouble believing it myself and I _saw_ it happen…”

Mike pulled away, frowning. “You are making no sense.”

“Can we go home first? I will explain when we are there. I am more than ready to get out of here.”

Mike nodded, grabbing his phone out of his pocket. “Let me just call an ambulance for her and then we…”

“No!” I grabbed his wrist, shaking my head. “No ambulance.”

Mike’s brows furrowed. “Bloom…”

I tried to shoot him my secret weapon without making it too obvious. I needed him to do what I said, to take me and Stella home without asking questions and without calling any authorities. “Please, dad.”

He stared at me for a moment. I swore I could hear the wheels turning in his head. Finally, he sighed and inclined his head. “Alright.” He put his phone away again. “But you better have a good explanation for thi… Oh!” He let out a startled laugh when I threw my arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. “It’s alright, sweetheart.”

Mike hadn’t parked too far from the clearing and luckily, we didn’t encounter anyone as we carried Stella away. We put her in the back and then got in, Kiko tagging after us and jumping in my lap the moment I sat down. My bike we left at the park. Mike promised he would go back for it later since I wasn’t feeling like ever going back to the park. No, scratch that. If I never went there again, it would be too soon.

Stella was still out cold when we arrived home and I urged Mike to put her in the guest bedroom rather than the couch downstairs as he had wished to do. I had fallen asleep on that thing once and my neck had yet to recover. I wouldn’t force anyone to endure that hell if there was a good alternative.

Mike decided to go back for my bike first – he claimed he was worried it might get stolen but I suspected he needed to clear his head a little – and I sought the comforts and privacy of my room. I needed to think.

“ _Okay, the first stage of the plan has been completed._ ” I sank down behind my desk, resting my head in my hands. “ _Now what?_ ”

Kiko padded into the room behind me and with a loud yawn curled himself onto my bed. He had apparently recovered from the shock and was in desperate need of a nap. I wished I could join him, but I knew that if I closed my eyes now, my dreams would be beyond weird and filled with images of Knut and his terrifying ghouls.

“I have to tell Mike the truth. He is not going to believe it and I can’t blame him: I wouldn’t believe me either. But what else can I do?”

I bit my lip harshly, tears clouding my vision. “ _The whole truth? Including that I am not really his daughter but rather said a snobby rich girl from a different universe where none of this is real?_ ” I yelped as blood filled my mouth. “ _Ouch…_ ”

I rubbed my forehead. “ _Perhaps the whole truth is not the best idea… He will probably have me admitted if I told him the whole truth at once. I am still worried he will after I tell him that Stella is a fairy and was attacked by monsters…_ ”

I groaned, dropping my head back into my hands. “ _But what are **you** going to do, Sybil?_”

That was the million-dollar question. What was I going to do? In the cartoon Bloom and Stella went to Alfea together, befriended the other three Winx and went on crazy adventures while fighting the Trix. Bloom got her powers stolen by the Trix and a war broke out because of it, she discovered she was the lost princess of Domino, got her powers back and eventually defeated the evil witches. And that was just in the first season!

Watching it had been great fun, but actually living through it…?

I shuddered. “ _Not all that appealing._ ”

“ _But you would learn magic_ ,” whispered a little voice in the back of my mind. This one did not sound like my mother, more like an evil version of myself. “ _You would be a powerful fairy, if not the most powerful fairy. Power of the Dragon, remember?_ ”

A shiver ran down my spine when I remembered what the magic had felt like. How it had called out to me. The pure electricity running through the air, the addicting pull…

“ _I always wanted to have powers._ ” I drummed my fingers on the desk. “ _Ever since being introduced to the world of fantasy I dreamed of having them. The power to heal and defend myself, to fight back those who hurt and bully me, to make them listen…_ ” Excitement turned in my stomach, and my fingers itched to feel that static electricity again, to use it and bend it to my will…

I frowned, shaking my head at the endless stream of thoughts. “ _What is wrong with you?_ ” I scoffed. “ _You just learned that you are in the Winx Club and have taken over Bloom: one of your favourite characters. Why aren’t you freaking out? Where is the panic, the pacing, the confusion, the denial?_ ”

When I had first realised I was possessing someone else’s body, I had been waiting for the moment I woke up, even after it sinking in that all of it was real. But now? I was completely and utterly calm, as if this was the most normal thing in the world and not something that only happened in fanfiction. Rather than freaking out, I was fantasizing about going to Alfea with Stella and learning magic.

I violently shook my head. “ _You shouldn’t want any of that, you idiot. Haven’t you been paying attention? This isn’t like the cartoon. The creatures here are a lot scarier and more dangerous, and Knut was trying to kill Stella. That didn’t happen in the cartoon. Nobody dies in cartoons, only the bad guys and even they rarely **truly** die._”

Not only did that mean things were different, but it also meant not everything would happen like I had seen in the cartoon. Quite the opposite, I couldn’t be sure of anything.

“ _Except what you decide to change_ ,” whispered that little voice again, the one who seemed hellbent on convincing me to follow the storyline and go to Alfea. “ _What harm is there in making a few changes?_ ”

I chewed on my lip, thinking hard. “ _I could find a spell which binds the Dragon’s Flame to me, so that the Trix can’t steal it from me. If that exists, of course. Without the Dragon’s Flame, they won’t be able to raise the Army of the Darkness and start a war._ ” I absently rubbed a finger over my lips. “ _And I know that the first professor Avalon is evil and working for Darkar, so I won’t fall for his tricks either. That will stop me from becoming evil. And I know what the Trix will try to do to get the Codex in season two. I could prevent all of that from happening. Then my years at Alfea wouldn’t be filled with danger and battle, but with making friends and learning magic…_ ”

Magic… Just the word alone was like a drug I was desperate for. I yearned for it.

“ _You always wanted to have powers and now that you do, you are going to pass up on them?_ ” whispered that voice. “ _This is your once in a lifetime, Sybil. You will regret it the rest of your life if you turn it down. You know you will._ ”

I nodded quietly to myself, mind made up. “ _Okay, I will go to Alfea with Stella._ ”

That still left me with a handful of problems. First: how was I going to tell Mike and Vanessa and make them believe me? Second: how was I going to stop Knut and his ghouls from attacking me and Stella a second time and destroying the house? Third… Well, currently there was no third.

I rubbed my forehead as no answer came to mind. “ _Maybe I should start with writing down everything I remember from the cartoon. That way I won’t forget anything. And I can write down the differences as well._ ” I rubbed the skin above my lip again. “ _It is all a little mashed up as well. I haven’t watched Winx Club in years… When did Bloom start dreaming about Daphne, was that before or after Riven met Darcy? And when again did the Trix realise that Bloom was the holder of the Dragon’s Flame?_ ” I grabbed one of my many empty notebooks out of the bookcase and sat back down. “ _Okay, first episode…_ ”

I was still writing – not even halfway through season one – when a knock on my door finally tore me away from memory lane. The door opened and while I had expected it to be Mike, it was Vanessa who entered. I shot a quick glance out of the window – finding the sun still up and shining – and then to the time.

I frowned. Vanessa wasn’t supposed to be home just yet, which could only mean…

I sighed, putting down my pen and closing my notebook. “Dad called you.” Vanessa didn’t answer, but when she sat down on my desk and embraced me tightly, that was all the answer I needed. “He shouldn’t have. I am alright, really. It is St– the other girl I am worried about.”

“She is still out cold.” Vanessa ran her fingers through my hair. “What happened, sweetheart?”

I chewed on my lip, glancing once again at the window. Dread was twisting in my stomach, urging me to make something up rather than tell the truth. “Is dad back yet?” Vanessa nodded and I repeated the notion, still chewing on my lip. “Okay…”

Vanessa pursed her lips, her eyes shining with silent tears. “Is it that bad?”

“No- yes- I don’t know.” I sighed. “It is weird, crazy.” That did nothing to assure the kind woman beside me.

No word was spoken as I led her downstairs, finding Mike pacing in the living room. He stopped when I entered and I grimaced slightly. He had the serious sparkle in his eyes, one he rarely had and one I didn’t like all that much. Mike was rarely serious.

“You two better sit down,” I offered. “It is…” I shook my head. I honestly didn’t have the words to describe how crazy this situation was, and I wouldn’t even tell them half of it.

Mike and Vanessa sat down, tensely, and I started, explaining everything from arriving to the park to calling Mike. They didn’t interrupt me once, though I could see Mike wanted to a few times.

When I finally ended the story, Mike and Vanessa were staring at me. Vanessa had her hands clasped in front of her mouth and her eyes were glazed over, while Mike was stuck between wanting to laugh and scream.

“If I hadn’t come to and found that girl beside me, I would have thought I had dreamed the whole thing,” I told them. “I know how crazy all of this sounds. I don’t blame you if you think I have lost my marbles, because I would think the same if I were in your shoes, but it really happened. Please believe me.”

Mike finally snapped out of it, shaking his head. “Bloom, sweetheart…” My shoulders slumped at his tone. He didn’t believe me. “Are you off your medication again?”

Now that was just offensive. “This isn’t one of my hallucinations, dad!” I scoffed, resting my hands on my hips. “And no! I am not!”

“You are talking about monsters, walking corpses and fairies,” protested Mike, shaking his head. He turned to Vanessa, who was still staring at me. “I think we better call doctor Morton. Either she developed another tolerance to her medication, or the dose needs to increased.”

“I am not making this up!” I gritted my teeth, fury arising from how quickly Mike was writing this off as a hallucination. “And I don’t need more medication!”

“That is what you said last time,” reminded Mike me. I had no idea what he was talking about. Probably something the real Bloom had done. “Sweetheart, when you have an episode, your fantasy is reality. You can’t distinguish right from wrong.”

I stomped my foot in anger. I knew Mike would be hard to convince but that he was writing it off on me having a psychosis… “Then wait until the girl is awake and ask her!”

Mike rose to his feet. He wasn’t angry. Instead, he was sad and worried. Grieving even. “Bloom, we are your parents and we love you. We want what is best for you, and right now we have already wasted enough time.” He placed his hands on my shoulders and I flinched as a sharp pain shot through my body at the touch. Oh, that hurt! “I am going to call doctor Morton to explain you have suffered another set-back and then an ambulance for that girl…”

“Oh, please don’t,” interrupted a cheerful voice.

I swiftly turned around to find Stella half-way down the stairs. All earlier paleness was gone and her eyes were shining. Only then did it hit me how stunning she was. She had a beautiful sun-kissed tan that made her long blonde hair resemble liquid gold. She was slenderer than I was, but not as curved, and quite a bit taller. If I had to guess she was about my original height. But the most astonishing feature were her eyes. They were the colour of the setting sun.

“ _No wonder Brandon fell in love with her so badly._ ”

She smiled brightly as she caught our gazes. “From what little I remember of my history lessons, Earth doesn’t have any magic nor believes in it. Explaining that I am the princess of a magical realm far away from here will be –” She laughed, shrugging carelessly. “– a tad difficult.”

Mike’s hands fell from my shoulders, clearly shocked that the girl was backing up my story rather than debunking it. I hissed again, glancing at my shoulders. They were as red as my hair and practically glowing.

“ _Oh, I completely forgot about that in all the excitement._ ” I grimaced. “ _I won’t be getting any sleep the upcoming week. Ouch, this is going to hurt so much…_ ”

Stella walked down the stairs with a grace only a princess could possess and then strutted towards me with a confidence and elegance that made me cringe. I couldn’t walk like that no matter how hard I would try. “ _Oh, mother would have loved her!_ ”

She stopped in front of me and her smile widened. How she hadn’t blinded me with her perfect white teeth yet, I had no idea.

She grasped my hands. “I can’t thank you enough for what you did. Without you…” She shook her head dismissively, causing her hair to rustle on either side of her face. “Well, I wouldn’t be here.” Her fingers tightened on mine and her hazel eyes almost pierced my soul. “I am forever in your debt.”

“Oh!” I quickly shook my head, my cheeks flushing. “No, that’s okay. I mean…” I chuckled nervously. “When I heard him order those things to kill you, I just couldn’t stand by and do nothing. Really, anyone would have done the same.”

Stella shook her head, a grim look crossing her face. “No, they wouldn’t. Ghouls are frightening creatures. Even the bravest of paladins would think twice before throwing themselves in between them and their prey.” Then her smile was back and she pulled her hands away from mine. “I am Stella of Solaria,” she introduced herself, dropping into a low curtsey that made my eyebrows shoot all the way up to my hairline. How could she balance herself like that on one leg in those heels and not fall on her face?! “And I owe you my life.”

“Nice to meet you, Stella,” I smiled. She rose to her feet with another bright smile. “I am Bloom Peters.” I held out my hand to her and she stared at it curiously. “Uh… We shake hands here to introduce ourselves,” I explained with a shrug.

Stella’s smile was back in a flash and she eagerly shook my hand, with her left one. “Oh, how delightful!”

I smothered my chuckles and decided not to correct her. She probably already felt like a fish out of water. Instead I pointed to Mike and Vanessa. “And these are my parents, Mike and Vanessa.” Stella dropped into another curtsey. “My dad helped me to get you here.”

“Oh, thank you so much.” Stella shot him a radiant smile after straightening. “I don’t want to think what might have happened if we remained in that spot.” She shuddered, rubbing her hands over her arms as if she had suddenly gone cold. “Something dark happened there. I sensed it the moment I crash landed into it.”

My eyes widened. “Really?” Adding silently: “ _Hmm, interesting… I will have to write that down._ ”

Stella nodded. “I shouldn’t have been surprised. Dark magic always attracts other dark magic, and when those horrible creatures shot me down…” She shuddered again and a shadow passed over her face. It disappeared as quickly as it had appeared, all traces of it fading away when she smiled brightly again. “It is all in the past and if I hadn’t landed there, our paths wouldn’t have crossed.” She took another step towards me, grasping my hands into her own again. I suppressed the urge to flinch back. Stella apparently hadn’t ever heard of personal space. “Why, you have one if not THE most powerful aura I have ever encountered. Of course, you couldn’t be anything but powerful. My sceptre was willing to follow your command and it doesn’t just listen to anyone.” Her eyes shined like a sunrise and she was practically bouncing. “How old are you? I’m guessing we are about the same age.”

I blinked, finding Stella’s trail of thoughts and word-vomiting a little hard to follow. “Uh… I am eighteen?”

“I knew it!” Stella actually twirled, her hair following after her like a veil. “I am rarely wrong,” she then explained cockily. “Were you accepted to Alfea?” My lips parted to answer, but she was already waving her hand dismissively. “Of course you were. With that aura they probably begged you to attend.”

I wetted my lips before interrupting Stella who was now spewing one fact right after another over Alfea and their admission requirements. I had to play a part after all and Bloom Peters didn’t know she was a fairy or what Alfea was. “Uh, what is Alfea?”

Stella made a choking sound, her hand landing on her chest with an appalled face. “You don’t know what Alfea is?”

I shook my head, inwardly grinning gleefully. If I kept this up, I should be nominated for an Oscar. “I don’t even know how I did – well, whatever I did with your sceptre.”

Stella’s jaw slacked. “Are you telling me that when you jumped in front of me, you had no idea you had powers?” I shook my head again and this time I wasn’t even lying. Stella stared at me and much to my horror her bottom lip began to tremble. The next moment she was squeezing me to her chest and sobbing.

I gently rubbed her back, not quite sure what had gotten her so upset. “Uh, Stella? Are you alright?” Stella nodded, but judging by the sobs that continued to spill from her lips she was anything but. I sighed, tightening my own grip on her and continuing to rub her back. “There, there…”

“Oh, I have heard enough of this!” Mike burst out, clearly having shaken off the shock. I tried to glance back at him but Stella was still holding me in a death grip, unwilling to let me go just yet. “I am calling the police! This is madness! You should be ashamed of yourself, young lady, to take advantage of my daughter in her fragile state…” He let out a startled yelp and this time I forced Stella to let me go so I could see what was happening.

Kiko was racing through the living room after a mouse? How on earth had a mouse gotten into our house? Mike was in shock once more, staring at the creature as if it had three heads. Stella chuckled, sniffing loudly and rubbing a hand under her nose. “Now do you believe me?”

“You… You…” Mike pointed at the mouse. Kiko caught it, but just as he was going for the kill, Stella snapped her fingers and the mouse disappeared. Instead Kiko was holding Mike’s phone. “How…”

“Your daughter is a fairy,” explained Stella easily. I noticed that Vanessa hadn’t moved one inch from her spot on the couch and was staring completely shocked at the two of us. “And from what I have seen, a very powerful one.” She turned back to me. “Now that I know, I insist you come with me to Alfea. It is a magical school for fairies, you see? The finest in the entire magic dimension.” She giggled to herself. “Well, actually it is the only one unless you count the Beta Academy but everyone knows that is second-rate school.”

“Fairy?” I repeated, blinking confused. Or I hoped that was what it looked like. “You are telling me I am a fairy? That I have magic?”

Stella frowned. “Of course. Surely odd things have happened around you, things you couldn’t explain? You see that with all magical creatures. Especially once puberty sets in.” She waved a hand through the air. “They used to start teaching at the age of sixteen, but the magic council changed it after a few too many incidents. Claimed it was because adolescents don’t have the maturity to handle the responsibility that came with their powers, that they take advantage of their powers and abuse it. I think it’s ridiculous. We have them, don’t we? Why shouldn’t we be allowed to take advantage of it?”

I opened my mouth to respond but then noticed that Mike had gone pale and was still staring at his phone. Now that it was no longer a mouse, Kiko had grown bored with it and instead was stroking my legs with his tail, meowing softly. Mike, however, was still entranced by it.

“Dad?” He didn’t respond. I quickly wrapped my arms around his waist and hugged him. “Daddy?”

“Magic…” uttered Mike, not responding to my touch at all. “It can’t be…”

“Of course, it can.” I turned to Vanessa as she finally spoke. Tears were rolling down her cheeks and she shot me a watery smile. “Mike, we have always known Bloom was special. For heaven’s sake, you rescued her as a baby. From a fire which refused to go near her.” She placed a hand on my shoulder and I bit back a whimper at another flash of pain. Her fingers were shaking, the only indication that she was struggling with this new information as much as Mike was. “It is your choice, sweetheart, but I think you should go with Stella to this school.” My lips parted in shock, actual shock. She smiled sadly. “Oh, I don’t want you to go, but I think you need to. I think…” Her breath hitched and her bottom lip quivered as more tears filled her eyes. “I think you will find what you are looking for there.”

I bit my lip as shame crashed through me, my cheeks flushing guiltily. With everything that had happened, I had never stopped to think how Mike and Vanessa would feel about any of this. Never taken a moment to consider their opinions on me moving to an entirely different dimension – one they hadn’t known existed until now and certainly couldn’t travel to – and go to a school they had never heard about, on the word of this girl I had just _met_ that magic was being taught there.

Now that I was thinking about it, if I had been my own daughter I would have objected loudly and considered the whole thing more than a little shady.

“Oh, mom.” I wrapped an arm around her waist and hugged her just as tightly as I did Mike.

Maybe going to Alfea wasn’t the best choice. Especially not when I knew trouble awaited me there. Sure, I could try to prevent it from happening but the bottom line was that the Trix were trying to find the Dragon’s Flame and I was its Keeper. They would figure that out if I went to Alfea, and while I knew what happened in the cartoon, the reality had already proven to be quite different. Who was to say I would survive my encounter with them?

“ _Will it really be worth it? Leaving them and this safety behind just to learn magic?_ ”

I sniffed, rubbing a hand over my cheeks as I noticed they were damp. “This is all so much…” I glanced at Stella, who was smiling sadly at the three of us from a distance. “This morning I was still just Bloom, and now…?”

“I understand,” nodded Stella, shooting me a reassuring smile. “It is a lot to take in. But if you want, I can show you the school.” She snapped in her fingers and suddenly she was holding a postcard. “You won’t have to decide now. I won’t have to leave until tomorrow. My original plan was to go to Magix for some shopping, stay the night there and then be on time for the start of the new year the next day. But Magix isn’t going anywhere and I can go shopping another time.”

Vanessa turned to her husband, who was rubbing his face. “Mike?”

I followed her example somewhat eager. “Dad?”

I hadn’t realised how much it would mean to me if Mike and Vanessa came with me and gave me their blessing. Vanessa had already given it, but her husband didn’t seem onboard with the idea yet.

Mike took a deep breath in and then let it back out. “Alright. Why not? I don’t think things can get any crazier.”

I couldn’t keep in the menacing chuckle. “Careful what you wish for.”

Stella shot me a curious glance but didn’t ask. She deposited the card on the floor and instantly it grew in size until it was big enough for all four of us to stand on it at the same time. I couldn’t make out what was on the card, though. It resembled a pool, ripples running constantly over the surface, but guessed it was much like the card from the cartoon.

Stella smiled, all traces of her earlier tears gone. “Follow me.” She stepped onto the card and instantly sunk away in it. I glanced at Mike and Vanessa, whose eyes had turned as round as sausages. “Hurry up, or else the portal will close,” called Stella from out of the card.

I stepped on to the card and grimaced slightly. It was like stepping into water without getting wet. I could feel the liquid splash around my ankles and tug at my clothes, I even held my breath as my head disappeared through it, but the suffocation remained absent. Breathing in the air of the card was different, though. Like I was in one of those cities covered in smog.

When I landed beside Stella and gotten used to breathing in the thick air, I found myself standing in an enormous garden. In the far distance was, towering high above me, a beautiful castle, but not the pink one I had mentally prepared myself for. Instead, white stones greeted me, practically shimmering in the sunlight. It was positioned on a hill overlooking the garden and absolutely enormous. From where I stood the castle seemed to have much like the shape it had in the cartoon, but that was where the similarities ended. Turrets stood proud on every corner of the castle and in between them was a solid dark roof. I couldn’t count the number of windows it had. They were so many! Honestly, the world spun before my eyes just by trying to count them.

I gaped at the beauty of the castle and the garden surrounding it. “ _Bloody hell, it is that I know I am in the Winx Club universe or else I would be sure I had stumbled upon Hogwarts._ ”

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” spoke Stella from beside me. I had completely forgotten she was there and turned wide-eyed at her. She laughed. “Most people have this reaction when they see it for the first time. That is why they hand-out these cards. That way there won’t be a jam on the first day of the year.” Vanessa and Mike were on her other side and staring in just as much awe at the castle as I was. “Well, this is Alfea castle. We are currently standing in its gardens. They grow almost every herb and flower here and then some. It stretches much further then we can see, and then disappears into the woods,” she explained as a true guide. “The entrance is all the way on the other side of the castle. You have to pass through the gates first and then you come into the courtyard. If you like this garden, just wait until you see that one.”

“It… it…” Mike’s voice caught in his throat. “It is beautiful…”

“You should see my father’s palace,” chuckled Stella, waving her hand dismissively. “It is twice as big and made out of stones that reflect the sunlight. It is almost as if the castle itself is a sun.”

“Palace?” echoed Mike, his eyes widening. “Wait, you are a princess?” I chuckled. He had clearly been too shocked to notice Stella’s earlier quip about being the princess of a faraway realm.

“Hmm-hmm.” Stella shot him a radiant smile. “I am the princess of Solaria and heir to the throne.” She waved another dismissive hand. “You don’t need to bow.”

I bit my lip to smother more chuckles. I doubted either Mike or Vanessa had considered doing that.

“Are there many princesses attending Alfea?” questioned Vanessa, her eyes gazing curiously at the blonde girl beside us.

Stella shook her head at once. “Quite the opposite, most kings and queens prefer to home-school their children. They don’t like them to mingle with the common folk. Others think that the magical schools are way too forward in what they teach. It is all rather medieval if you ask me. My mother attended Alfea when she was younger and insisted I follow in her footsteps. She believes Alfea is a good preparation for my role as future queen rather than a liability.” She shrugged. “But Solaria is one of the more modern kingdoms in the Magic Dimension.”

This spiked my interest. It was a shame I wasn’t carrying my notebook. I needed to write this down. “Really?”

“Hmm-hmm.” Stella shot me one of her radiant smiles. “Take Andros for example. That is the realm of the sea, by the way. They still believe in something as barbaric as arranged marriages. Trust me, the day a princess of Andros attends Alfea I will cut off my hair.” I bit my lip to keep my snort in. I couldn’t wait until she met Layla. “Melody is another example.” I frowned at the way she spoke the name. There was an underlying bitterness, possibly even hatred, in it. “If you hadn’t guessed, Melody is the realm of music and music is everything to them. It is sacred, practically a religion. Anything that could influence it for the worst is therefore out of the question. Melody is even less likely to send their princesses to Alfea then Andros.”

“How many realms are there?” wondered Vanessa. I smiled. She was as curious about all of this as I was, beating me to asking questions by just a second. “It sounds like there are quite a few.”

“Pff.” Stella let out a deep dramatic sigh and her shoulders slumped a little, yet she never lost her cheerfulness. “I am supposed to know the answer to that, but honestly, the history of the magic dimension was never really my thing. I can’t remember, sorry.” She shrugged, shooting Vanessa an apologetic smile. “But quite a lot. Some aren’t habitable, though. There is the Omega Dimension, which is basically a prison realm, and then there is Domino –” I couldn’t help but tense at the name, something twisted in my stomach and urged me on to do _something_. “– which was once a vibrant realm but is now a complete and utter desolation.”

The words fluttered through my head like little birds. “Wow…”

Stella clapped her hands with a bright smile. “So this is Alfea castle in the realm of Magix. Magix is basically the capitol of the Magic Dimension. All the important things are in Magix, including all the magical schools. Oh, and it is from where the council rules.”

“You mentioned them before,” I noted. Why oh why didn’t I have my notebook? “What are they?”

“They are representatives of the most powerful realms in the dimension,” explained Stella. “But nobody knows who they are. It is all very secret and hush-hush. My father knows, of course. All the rulers do. They are the ones who appoint them to the council after all. It is forbidden to speak about their identities, though, and anyone blessed enough to meet them, will have to take a vow of silence. You aren’t even to acknowledge them if you meet one outside the council.”

“Wow,” I repeated. That was news to me. The cartoon had never indulged much in the politics of the magic dimension. Why should they have? It was a kid’s cartoon about a bunch of fairies who went on adventures and fought the forces of evil. Nothing political about any of that. “That is all really strict.”

Stella shrugged. “It had to. First their identities were common knowledge, but that made security a right nightmare. After three members were successfully assassinated and a handful of others blackmailed, the entire council quit out of protest. That was when they decided on a different approach.” She winked at me. “See, I wasn’t like I didn’t learn anything during my history lessons.”

I laughed. “Well, I think I will need a handful of those before I understand.”

Stella’s entire body seemed to light up. “Does that mean you will come with me?”

I glanced at Mike and Vanessa, catching them smiling fondly yet sadly at us. “Mom? Dad?”

Vanessa stepped towards me and wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “You already know the answer, sweetheart.”

I turned to Mike. He shook his head. “While I hate to see you go, I think your mother is right. You need this. This is what you have been waiting and searching for.” I smiled as he joined the embrace. “But I will miss you.”

“I will miss you too.” My voice broke as I uttered the words, my bottom lip quivering at the grieve that washed over me. “You have no idea how much I will miss you…”

I had no idea how long we stood there, simply embracing one another, but Stella eventually coughed gently. “I am sorry to cut in…” She really did seem to mind, pouting a little. Were that tears in her eyes? “But we should probably head back up.”

Mike cleared his throat awkwardly, stepping out of our embrace. “Right… How do we get out of here?”

“Simple.” Stella shot us a radiant smile. “You just jump.” And with that she was gone.

Mike blinked and then turned flabbergasted to us. I chuckled with a shrug. He shook his head and followed her example. I shot one last glance to Alfea castle, my stomach twisting happily and butterflies fluttering happily at the thought that soon I would see it in person.

“ _But first I have to stop Knut_ ,” I reminded myself. “ _Step two of the plan is complete. Now if only I can figure out what step three will be…_ ”


End file.
